The Arizona Cardinals have less than one week remaining before ultimately having to narrow down their roster to 53, with Sunday's 6 p.m. ET deadline fast approaching. Some positions are more set in stone than others, and the wide receiver room is one that will need a lot of consideration.
It's a good problem to have, but the Cardinals' wide receiver room has performed well so far in camp and preseason, raising the question of both who to keep and how many to keep at the position.
ESPN's Josh Weinfuss recently projected Arizona's final 53-man roster, opting for a group of seven:
Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Kendrick Bourne, Devin Duvernay, Simi Fehoko, Jalen Brooks, and Reggie Virgil.
He also calls it the Cardinals' "biggest decision" in whether to keep six or seven receivers on the roster.
Wide receiver room is Arizona's biggest 53-man roster decision
Though it's up for debate who is the Cardinals' true WR1, Harrison Jr. and Wilson are the locks. With Bourne emerging as Arizona's WR3 and Duvernay playing a key role on special teams, that likely leaves the final spots between Fehoko, Brooks, Virgil, and Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
"If the Cardinals keep six receivers, Smith-Marsette and either Virgil or Brooks are likely to be the odd-men out, but both, along with Xavier Weaver, could be practice squad possibilities," Weinfuss added.
The phrasing suggests Smith-Marsette is on thinner ice (shaved ice?) and is even more dependent on how many receivers Arizona keeps. It's also notable that Fehoko wasn't included in that list of potential "odd men out," with mention of his ability to double as a special-teams ace.
With the limited amount of in-game snaps these end-of-roster wide receivers realistically get throughout the season, anything players like Duvernay and Fehoko can do on special teams to separate themselves often is the deciding factor in who to keep behind the locks.
Then again, Brooks is having a standout preseason while Virgil already looks to be returning draft value as a fifth-round rookie.
Even if the Cardinals do decide to keep seven instead of six receivers, someone still performing well and proving their worth this preseason is unfortunately not going to make the 53-man roster.
The difficulty and unfinished nature are what make this the Cardinals' biggest decision by Sunday. It also adds weight to Friday's preseason game against the Packers, giving one last chance to evaluate players before determining the final 53.
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