5 difficult decisions Arizona Cardinals must make this offseason
By Sion Fawkes
The Arizona Cardinals are going to have a slew of decisions to make this offseason, so let’s talk about the most difficult ones of the bunch.
If you thought the Arizona Cardinals issues stopped with trying to figure out who the head coach should be, you’re wrong. Who should be the head coach is just the tip of a larger iceberg.
Instead, the Cardinals have a slew of issues they need to figure out, and below, we will talk about five difficult decisions they must make this offseason. A few of these issues you will see coming, but others may catch you by surprise.
They range from what to do with DeAndre Hopkins to whether they should hold onto the third overall pick or trade down in the NFL Draft to accumulate more draft picks. And finally, what should they do at quarterback? Let’s take a deeper look.
1 – Do the Arizona Cardinals trade DeAndre Hopkins?
Of course, there are many upsides and downsides to this polarizing topic. Let’s start with why the Arizona Cardinals would be wise to trade Hopkins. For one, trading the 30-year-old would still generate at the absolute least an early second round pick, but more likely a late first.
Since Hopkins is still entrenched in his prime, you can expect a team looking to contend for the Lombardi next season to call up Monti Ossenfort. Ossenfort could probably get a few mid-to-late-round bonuses for Hopkins, and that would accrue the Cardinals more picks.
The downside? While trading Hopkins would free up between $8.1 and $14.9 million in 2023, depending on whether he’s traded before or after June 1st, it would also cost them between $11.3 and $22.6 million in dead money, again, depending if the potential trade happened before or after June 1st.
As you can see, there are numerous pros and cons to trading Hopkins. This is an issue the Cardinals will need to address sooner than later.