The Arizona Cardinals would be foolish not to pursue defensive tackle Christian Wilkins
By Brandon Ray
With the many holes on the Arizona Cardinals' roster, it will be up to general manager Monti Ossenfort to address them as best as possible. With over $40 million in cap space to work with, per overthecap.com, Ossenfort needs to work some magic to bring the Cardinals back to being competitive after a down year in 2023. One of the positions that the Cardinals will need to address at some point this offseason is defensive tackle.
A pending free agent that the Cardinals need to focus in on is defensive tackle Christian Wilkins from the Miami Dolphins. Standing at 6'4", Wilkins provides physicality to his game that has helped the Dolphins' defense against both the pass and the rush. This past season, Wilkins had 65 total tackles and a career high 9 sacks. Throughout the season, the Dolphins suffered injuries right from the start which included edge rushers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb, which limited Wilkins from doing what he does best.
The defense for the Cardinals allowed over 143 rushing yards per game and head coach Jonathan Gannon needs to find a way to improve from that with Ossenfort this offseason. Wilkins is the perfect fit for this struggling run defense. Now, there is a chance that Wilkins is franchise tagged by the Dolphins, but if is able to avoid that and hit the free agent market, the Cardinals need to find a way to bring him for a visit at the very least and try to get him into a Cardinals uniform.
According to spotrac.com, Wilkins is valued at over $20 million which is a lot for an interior defensive lineman. However, Wilkins is an immediate upgrade for the Cardinals' defense that does not have a lot of true playmakers.
The Cardinals would be foolish to not at the very minimum, consider bringing in Wilkins to boost this defense that desperately needs it.