Same Arizona Cardinals, different numbers

With the NFL allowing athletes to wear whichever jersey number they please from now on, a few Arizona Cardinals players did not waste any time making the switch.

Budda Baker, Byron Murphy, Chase Edmonds, and James Conner are among the four players who will now wear new numbers going into the 2021 season. Each player has also decided to wear a single digit number as well, but this could change by the start of the regular season.

Baker will wear number three in honor of Allen Iverson, according to a tweet. This will be the second time he is changing numbers after wearing 36 his rookie year, and switching to 32 after former safety Tyrann Mathieu left for the Houston Texans.

“Birdgang, I love you, don’t hate me. 3rd times the charm,” Baker tweeted at the beginning of the month.

Edmonds will remove the number nine from his jersey and just go with the number two. While he did not explain why he made the switch, he wore number 22 while attending Fordham University, so that could play a part in it.

“Deuce,” he tweeted earlier this week.

Conner, his running back counterpart and newly acquired teammate, will wear number six. While he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Conner wore number 30. He also did not give a reason why he was changing his jersey number, however, while he was at the University of Pittsburgh, Conner wore number 24, and two plus four does equal six.

Last on the list is Murphy, who will go from number 33 to number seven. Murphy wore number six and number one while he was playing at the University of Washington, so adding those two numbers together would make his new number. At least, that is one logical reason behind it.

“Change your number every year, keep QBs guessing,” J.J. Watt tweeted in response to Baker. “I like the strategy.”