The Cardinals’ defense should be much more competitive

Why Cardinals fans can’t blame the defensive woes on youth or general lack of ability

Same old same old refrain —- when a Cardinals’ side of the ball is struggling —- the excuse is “they lack talent” —- or —- “none of these guys would start for other teams.”

Do you know that this season, 10 of the Cardinals’ 11 starters on defense are veterans in their primes?

Let’s take a close look at the players, their ages, their years in the NFL, their salaries, the best PFF grade of their career and their current PFF grade:

SOLB Zaven Collins —- age 25 —- 4-years NFL —- D1 (ARI) ‘21 –

Contract: through 2026, 2-year $14M extension —- best season PFF: 72.1 —- current: 75.9

SDT Bilal Nichols —- age 28 —- 7-years NFL —- D5 (CHI) ‘18

Contract: through 2026, 3 year $21M deal —- best season PFF: 71.4 —- current: 49.5

NT Roy Lopez —- age 27 —- 4 years NFL —- D6 (HOU) ‘21

Contract: last year of 2-year $2M deal —- best season PFF: 65.4 —- current: 60.0

WDE L.J. Collier —- age 29 —- 6 years NFL —- D1 (SEA) ‘19

Contract: 1-year $1.29M deal —- best season PFF: 60.2 —- current: 42.1

WOLB Dennis Gardeck —- age 30 —- 7-years NFL —- CFA (ARI) ‘18

Contract: last year of 3-years $10M deal —- best season PFF: 89.6 —- current: 67.9

SILB Kyzir White —- age 28 —- 6-years NFL —- D4 (LAC) ‘18

Contract: last year of 2-year $10M deal —- best season PFF: 67.2 —- current: 37.0

WILB Mack Wilson Sr.—- age 26 —- 6-years NFL —- D5 (CLE) ‘19

Contract: through 2026 on 3-year $12.75M deal —- best season PFF: 81.5 —- current: 65.6

LCB Sean Murphy-Bunting —- age 27 —- 6-years NFL —- D2 (TB) ‘19

Contract: through 2026 on 3-year $22.5M deal —- best season PFF: 71.8 —-current: 56.8

SS Jalen Thompson —- age 26 —- 6-years NFL —- SD5 (ARI) ‘19

Contract: through 2025 on 3-year $36M extension —- best season PFF: 71.3 —- current: 52.1

FS Budda Baker —- age 28 —- 8-years NFL —- D2 (ARI) ‘17

Contract: last year of a 2-year $28.2M deal —- best season PFF: 75.3 —- current: 72.3

Notes:

• All of these veterans are in what should be considered to be their primes.
• All of them have earned impressive year-long PFF grades in previous seasons, save for L.J. Collier’s high of 60.2 —- which shows what they are capable of achieving.
• The majority of them, save for three holdovers from the previous staff (Baker, Collins and Gardeck) are underachieving thus far this season, and in some cases, are grossly underachieving, particularly falling short of what one would expect, given their current salaries and the trust that Monti Ossenfort has put in them.

These players on the IR could have helped thus far:

DE Justin Jones —- age 28 —- 7-years NFL —- D3 (LAC) ‘18

Contract: 3-year $31.2M deal —- best season PFF: 70.6 —- 3 games this season: 30.2

• DE Darius Robinson D1 (AR) ‘24
• ED BJ Ojulari D2 (AR) ‘23 —- best season PFF: 64.8

Conclusion:

While this veteran lineup on defense for the Cardinals may not be star-studded, save for perennial Pro Bowler Budda Baker, three of the carryovers from the previous staff are playing well, but 4 of the highest paid of Monti Ossenfort’s unrestricted free agents signees (DE Justin Jones, DT Bilal Nichols, Kyzir White, Sean Murphy-Bunting) are looking thus far like busts. It doesn’t help either that Jalen Thompson has been playing well below his pay grade.

The Cardinals’ veteran lineup has ample enough talent to be much more competitive than what they have been —-> they proved that versus the Rams —-> and they proved it during the second half versus the Lions. Other than that, the overall play of this defense has been virtually a path of least resistance.

Per PFF, the Cardinals’ team defense through 4 games is an NFL worst 50.9

• Overall Defense: 50.9 —- #32
• Run Defense: 38.2 —- #32
• Tackling 54.1 —- #17 —- (take Budda Baker’s team-high 79.9 tackling grade out of this equation and where would this team grade be?)
• Pass Rush: 52.7 —- #29
• Coverage: 55.2 —- #29

ROTB Question of the Day:

How did you vote? What are your assessments?

Will it be a Purdy Picture again for the 49ers against the Cardinals in Week 5?