Leonard Floyd would be a great addition to the Arizona Cardinals defense

Los Angeles Rams v Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Rams v Kansas City Chiefs / Cooper Neill/GettyImages
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The rangy outside linebacker could provide the pressure from the edge that the Arizona Cardinals defense so desperately needs.

We're now four months away from the 2023 regular season, and the Arizona Cardinals still don't possess a top-notch edge rusher. All hope is not lost, however.

For some odd reason, outside linebacker Leonard Floyd is still searching for employment. For financial reasons alone, the Los Angeles Rams parted ways with the 30-year-old veteran two months ago. There's still an opportunity for Cards general manager Monti Ossenfort to make overtures to Floyd and his representatives, but he better act fast.

Before his release back on March 10th, Floyd was set to count $22 million against the Rams' 2023 salary-cap allotment. That figure was way too high for a club that doesn't expect to compete when the new season kicks off next September. While Floyd would be a tremendous addition to coordinator Nick Rallis' defense, aren't this year's Cardinals also in the "rebuilding" mode that Los Angeles seems mired in at the present time?

Leonard Floyd could be great for the Arizona Cardinals

First-year Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon, for one, won't accept the notion that the Redbirds are "tanking" in any shape or form. The former defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles claims he didn't come to the desert to lose football games. If that's really the case, than Ossenfort needs to realize that it's not too late to add some worthwhile talent to a Cards roster that is in dire need of it.

That could quite possibly start with Floyd, a 6 foot 6, 240 pounder who racked up excellent numbers for the Rams in 2022. The former Chicago Bears draft pick totaled nine sacks and 59 tackles in 17 starts for Arizona's division rival last fall.

Since he signed with Los Angeles back in 2020, Floyd has really come into his own as an NFL pass rusher. Over the past three campaigns, the ninth-overall selection of the 2016 draft knocked the opposition's signal-callers to the ground an impressive 29 times. During his seven-year professional career, Floyd has been credited with 47.5 quarterback sacks in stints with the Bears and the Rams.

Floyd would instantly become the top edge-rushing threat out of a Cardinals group that currently includes Isaiah Simmons, Cameron Thomas, Myjai Sanders and Dennis Gardeck. Second-round draft choice BJ Ojulari is also in the mix. Ossenfort needs to get on the horn and secure the still-effective Floyd before another organization beats him to it.

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(Statistics provided by Wikipedia)