TEMPE, Ariz. -- It’s beginning.
The harsh reality of free agency has started to hit the Arizona Cardinals' defense, a top-10 unit in three of the past four seasons, on Wednesday night with reports that defensive tackle Calais Campbell and safety Tony Jefferson are expected to sign with different teams when free agency kicks off at 4 p.m. ET Thursday.
But this was expected. In this age of free agency no team will have the exact same roster in consecutive seasons. It’s a reality Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has accepted. He didn’t use the word “rebuilding” during offseason news conferences. He’s just said the Cardinals are “putting a team together that’s going to be there for the first time.”
But, as can be seen with the early news that Campbell is expected to sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jefferson is expected to sign with the Baltimore Ravens, free agency this year might hit the Cardinals harder than it has in the past. Especially on defense.
The worst-case scenario is the Cardinals lose six players who either were starters or had regular roles on defense. Also scheduled to hit the open market are cornerback Marcus Cooper, linebacker Kevin Minter, defensive tackle Frostee Rucker and safety D.J. Swearinger. Along with Campbell and Jefferson, combined, they started 72 games and missed just five games last season.
If all six leave, the Cardinals defense could have a significantly different look to it in 2017.
“Hopefully we’re prepared for it,” Arians said. “We knew it could be coming, and I still like our roster. I don’t think we’ll lose a lot of guys but we could lose two or three guys.
“We feel like we have young players ready to go and some guys injured who are coming back, and then we’ll fill in our own.”
The Cardinals have used the draft the past two years to prepare for the possible departures of Campbell and Rucker by selecting defensive tackles Rodney Gunter in 2015 and Robert Nkemdiche in 2016. Arizona still has safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Tyvon Branch on the roster, but both were injured throughout last season, finishing on injured reserve. And the Cardinals defense requires more than two safeties on the field at times, depending on the package.
However, where the Cardinals are in need of help in free agency is at inside linebacker and cornerback should Minter and Cooper both sign elsewhere.
Arizona has lined up with new faces spread across its defense before. Cornerback Patrick Peterson cited 2013, when injuries to both starting outside linebackers, Lorenzo Alexander and Alex Okafor, and safety Rashad Johnson forced the Cardinals to restock their roster during the season. At least this year, they’ll have time to find replacements for any departed players before the team reports for offseason workouts in April.
But if none of six players return in 2016, the Cardinals could face their most significant makeover on defense under Arians. What impact that will have, nobody knows.
“That’s going to be a very, very big question to answer if it happens,” Peterson said. “These guys are key pieces to our defense, so I hope that we’re able to keep them together, keep our defense together.
“We’ve been playing very, very solid these last two years, been top five in almost all the major categories of the last two years. I think that speaks volumes. If you want to win a championship, that’s what wins championships -- defense. I think we got what it takes.”
