Top 5 players on Arizona Cardinals defense who will comprise long-term core
By Sion Fawkes
3 - Marco Wilson, CB
Nobody on this list made a bigger leap than Marco Wilson in 2022, and he has the potential to become the number one corner on this team. If Wilson can snag the job, it will further set the stage for a long-term stay in the desert.
Even if someone like Garrett Williams passes Wilson on the depth chart, Wilson, at worst, makes for a high-end CB2. At this point, there is plenty of reason to believe the CB2 spot is Wilson’s floor moving forward, and his ceiling could be an upper echelon CB1. That being said, you can expect him to stick around beyond 2025.
2 - Jalen Thompson, S
Jalen Thompson and Budda Baker have made up one of the NFL’s best safety tandems over the past two seasons. And you can look for that trend to continue in 2023, even if Baker is still in a contract dispute with the Cards at the time of this writing.
Thompson will be just 25 this season, and there is plenty of reason to believe he’s just now scratching the surface of his prime. Once he puts up another consistent season barring injury, he too will be readying himself for a long stay with the Arizona Cardinals.