Arizona Cardinals won’t regret letting Christian Kirk walk

The Arizona Cardinals were in a bind with Christian Kirk on the roster.

After being drafted in 2018, Christian Kirk had ample opportunities to become the speedy slot guy the Cardinals wanted him to be. Kirk was on a pretty good streak in his rookie year until he broke his foot on the road in the Cardinals’ final win of the 2018 season; that unreal win over Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.

Bleacher Report recently wrote an article about each team’s biggest regret this offseason. Specifically, this article said that the Arizona Cardinals would regret paying too much for Marquise “Hollywood” Brown.

The article continued by stating that Kirk isn’t that much different from Brown statistically, and they’re not wrong there. Both wide receivers had very similar yardage racked up in their first few seasons with their respective teams.

The Arizona Cardinals won’t regret saying goodbye to Christian Kirk

From a quantitative (numbers) standpoint, one can sit here and argue that Brown is hardly an upgrade, just like the point above says. However, there needs to be a deeper analysis of this move (something that took this writer time to see as well).

Arizona gave up that first-round pick for Brown. So from that numbers standpoint, it’s a hard thing to get over because of how much value is rightly in a first-round pick; don’t let anyone tell you that draft picks aren’t valuable.

Of course, the Rams don’t care about their first-round picks. The difference with the Rams is that they use them in earth-shattering trades to get what they need.

Getting back to the Cardinals, this is an excellent move when you look at it from a qualitative (intangibles) standpoint. That first-round pick not only brought Brown to the Cardinals, but it bought the chemistry that Kirk never had with Kyler Murray.

What can chemistry do? Look at the connection that Joe Burrow and JaMarr Chase had last year. That’s what the Cardinals are hoping happens with this new pairing.

Best of luck to Kirk as he turns a new page in Jacksonville.