But our choice wasn’t limited to gardeck or cj. That’s a faulty argument. I think it’s virtually a consensus it was time to move on from cj. To a flash in the pan coming off injury still hadn’t shown explosiveness gardeck? Questionable at the very very best.
So all offseason, I essentially said the team is punting.
My reasoning:
1. The Cardinals need a salary cap reset of sorts. They have invested a ton of money in older players to get them over the hump in Kyler's early years. Most of them haven't worked out too well.
2. The Cardinals CAN'T keep relying on expensive free agents to fill needs. So, this year they saturated the pass rush position with cheaper "potential" type players like Gardeck, Thomas, Sanders, and you might consider Dimukeje in this group as well. Sprinkled in with a few veterans like Golden and Kennard. The idea is that one of the young guys sticks, and you can find more in future drafts.
3. They drafted young OL they like. They brought in Smith and Hayes to fill out the depth and develop so that they aren't paying $10 million per year on guards.
I'm not advocating this approach, but I understand it. Even with adding veteran pass rushers, I don't really think we'd see more from this team because
Kyler Murray is the engine that makes this team go, and
Kyler Murray hasn't taken the next step forward. When you are paying Kyler that kind of coin, he really has to make things happen even with DHop out. To me, he is the biggest culprit of the Cardinals poor start. The Rams game and Eagles game were winnable if Kyler Murray plays better. He's run out of excuses.