General manager Monti Ossenfort has gotten off to an extremely slow start in his first offseason with the Arizona Cardinals.
Heading into the beginning of the NFL's free-agent signing period last week, the Arizona Cardinals were armed with a decent amount of salary-cap space. Nevertheless, high-priced acquisitions weren't expected from a front office that is reportedly in the middle of a rebuild. Despite the low expectations, Cards fans were hoping that first-year general manager Monti Ossenfort would give them something, anything to get excited about.
At the time of this writing, outside linebacker Kyzir White has been the most noteworthy addition. The 26-year-old is coming off of a fine campaign with the Philadelphia Eagles, and has ties with the "Big Red" coaching staff. That was a fine start to the offseason, but Ossenfort seems to be in no hurry to make any more significant improvements to the Arizona roster.
Several of the Cardinals' in-house free agents have been retained by Ossenfort. Kelvin Beachum and Will Hernandez have been brought back to bring some stability to the offensive line. Wide receiver Greg Dortch could be an integral part of the passing attack, while placekicker Matt Prater and linebacker Ezekiel Turner were re-signed to help keep the organization's special-teams unit intact.
There's very little excitement surrounding the moves made by the Arizona Cardinals thus far
While each of those players should play a vital role with the Cards next fall, not one will leave the team's followers jumping for joy. However, a pair of veterans who many wanted back in the fold have left the franchise. Defensive end Zach Allen has migrated to the Denver Broncos, while cornerback Byron Murphy has taken his talents to the Minnesota Vikings.
There are plenty of observers who feel that the injury-prone Allen got more money (three years, $45.75 million) than he's worth. Murphy, on the other hand, walked away with a two-year contract that will pay him just $17.5 million. Surely, the Cardinals could've competed with or even topped Murphy's reasonable deal with the Vikings.
The Redbirds could be historically bad when the season gets underway in September. To say that Ossenfort has many holes to fill would be an understatement. Based on the fact that they're dragging their feet, it appears that Arizona's management could care less about being competitive in 2023.