The trade deadline has passed, and the Arizona Cardinals ultimately didn't pull the trigger on moving key veterans. While it's understandable they didn't want to trade Budda Baker to the Buffalo Bills given his importance to this franchise, you would've liked to have seen some deal.
GM Monti Ossenfort finally got this rebuild trending in the right direction by admitting his Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jacoby Brissett mistakes and trading them for future draft capital. But the Cardinals stopped there instead of trading veterans on the defensive side of the ball.
If Baker wasn't the one being moved, Josh Sweat likely should've been the headliner. A few other trade candidates existed, but the point remains: Arizona should've been more of a seller at the deadline.
Cardinals shouldn't have stopped at Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jacoby Brissett
Harrison and Brissett both seem to be unique situations rather than Ossenfort deliberately embracing a rebuild. Long term, they would've been better off taking a more fire-sale approach, similar to the Indianapolis Colts.
The Colts didn't trade everyone, as Daniel Jones and Jonathan Taylor were among the headliners to stay put. But they don't even have their own first-round pick in this upcoming draft and still managed to lean into the rebuild more effectively than Arizona.
The Colts traded left guard Quenton Nelson, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, and wide receivers Keenan Allen and Josh Downs. Even without that first-rounder, they now own 10 draft picks in 2027. Fortunately, the Cardinals aren't doing badly in the draft-pick department, and those Harrison and Brissett trades they made did help. But there wasn't much reason for Ossenfort not to continue that, especially with veterans on expiring deals or seeking new ones.
There's value in players like Baker staying past the deadline to at least establish winning habits and culture under first-year head coach Mike LaFleur, even if they aren't winning most of their games to finish the season. But Ossenfort should've found a better balance, prioritizing the future more instead of simply standing pat.
Even just a smaller move on the margins, to keep stockpiling assets, would've been encouraging that this is actually the direction Ossenfort wants to take the Cardinals. There's almost a sense that this team doesn't really want to rebuild and is trying to win games, but is struggling to do so because of unrealistic expectations and injuries.
Otherwise, why not embrace the rebuild better like the Colts did at the deadline? They didn't have to move those key pieces like Taylor or, in the Cardinals' case, Baker, but that didn't mean that Ossenfort's job was done.
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