Arizona Cardinals: Reviewing the Cards' Offseason Actions so Far

The Arizona Cardinals front office has spent the offseason doing what all NFL teams do: tweaking the team to build on the things that worked and to change the things that didn’t.

Although the team got off to a slow start in 2011, they managed to turn things around with an exciting 6-2 finish to the year, ending things on a somewhat unexpected high note. In fact, as the season wound down it seemed that the Cards were just one or two key wins away from making an improbable playoff run.

Without a true starting quarterback under center and down several key players due to injury, that position is encouraging even if the team did miss out on a wild-card berth last year.

When it comes to looking towards the future, there are several important components to the offseason. The team must retain key free agents while letting extraneous pieces go. They must bring in free agents from around the league to fill holes and take this opportunity to extend contracts to keep their major players in Arizona. Finally, they must bring in the best possible talent through the NFL draft.

So how well has the front office done in the offseason when it comes to putting together a team for next season that will build on the late success of the 2011 team? 

Retaining Key Free Agents

The Cardinals spent the lion's share of their time during the offseason sorting through the necessary business with their 25 free agents. The players in question ranged from the well-known like LaRod Stephens-Howling and Clark Haggans, to younger players like Rashad Johnson and Stephen Williams.

There is no doubt that every one of the free agents contributed in some way to the team during their tenure, but that doesn’t mean that they all have a place with next year’s squad.

A great many of the players whose contracts were up came from the defensive side of the ball—by far the Cardinals area of greatest growth in 2011.

When a defensive unit is clicking as well as these guys were towards the end of the season, it seems foolish to let the players who made contributions towards that progress go.

Although most of the players whose contracts expired this season were not integral to the process on the field last season, all of them were there to learn and to grow. These are the players who will eventually step up and replace their aging counterparts.

By re-signing many of the young defensive players like DB Greg Toler, DE Brandon Williams and LB Reggie Walker, the Cardinals have begun the process of locking in the core of their defensive future.

And let us not forget that the team has worked out a long-term contract with rising DE star Calais Campbell to lock him in for five years. That deal alone was perhaps the club’s biggest priority in the offseason, so it’s great to see them taking care of business.

The team has also taken care of business on special teams, re-signing both punter Dave Zastudil and kicker Jay Feely. LaRod Stephens-Howling is back to return kicks and act as a third running back option, too.

On the other hand, contract negotiations still haven’t been finalized between many of the team’s seasoned veterans. DE Vonnie Holliday, DB Hamza Abdullah and OLBs Clark Haggans and Joey Porter are all still available on the free-agent market, which means that Arizona still hasn’t necessarily taken care of all their free-agent business yet. 

Letting Extraneous Free Agents Go

Part of the cycle of free agency in the NFL is letting free agents who have not been a good fit for the team move on with their careers somewhere else.

Although the Cardinals have re-signed most of their free agents or made their intentions of re-signing them clear, there have still been a handful of players who have left for other teams.

None of the four players who have signed or agreed to terms elsewhere were really key components to the team. The Cardinals have let two guards (Deuce Lutui and Rex Hadnot) go in an offseason where they are clearly rethinking an offensive line that was at the bottom of the league in 2011. DB Sean Considine made contributions, but was far from a key player.

CB Richard Marshall will certainly be missed the most, as he had been turning into a central part of Horton's secondary.

All of these men had their place in Arizona, but for most of them it is clear that it was time for them to move on. The Cardinals front office did a good job here of recognizing that and letting them go, with perhaps the notable exception of Marshall.

Attracting New Free Agents

Most of the attention on this aspect of the Cardinals offseason was taken up by the brief media circus surrounding the wooing of Peyton Manning. When that courtship failed and Manning signed with the Denver Broncos, the media attention vanished, too.

Since the Cardinals have been pretty quiet on that front, it makes sense that no one has paid them much mind.

That doesn’t mean that the Cardinals have been completely complacent in bringing in free agents, though. The few acquisitions they have made have been strong ones at positions where there should be an immediate impact.

Perhaps the most notable free agent to come to Arizona so far this offseason has been DB William Gay from the Pittsburgh Steelers. After five years with the Steelers, Gay has not quite lived up to his potential. He has had a difficult time standing out on a defensive unit that has been, by and large, outstanding.

That may change when he joins the young Cardinals CB squad. His experience should help anchor that unit, particularly if he is able to win the starting job opposite Patrick Peterson. Even if Gay does not start immediately, he has the flexibility to offer relief at both cornerback and safety, giving defensive coordinator Ray Horton some new tools with which to make defensive plays.

Extend Existing Contracts

Allowing players to go into a contract year without taking care of business can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if a player wants to stay he might take that opportunity to step up his play to impress the front office that he is worth the money.

On the other hand, the pressure of living up to expectations in a contract year can really hurt a player’s impact on the field.

Often, when a team is serious about keeping a player around they circumvent the whole problem by simply extending or redoing an existing contract during the offseason. By the time the new season starts, the contract is signed and done.

That was the case with oft-maligned tackle Levi Brown, who was cut by the team and re-signed to a contract a few days later. Brown’s play has been criticized harshly over the years, but it also saw significant improvement during the second half of the 2011 season. Instead of completely rebuilding the offensive line, the Cardinals took this opportunity to bring back a man who could still become one of its anchors.

Brown’s contract extension was helped along by salary cap concerns that the team faced, as was also the case with ILB Stewart Bradley. Still, the move gave each of those men some job security, which may in turn help keep their performance at its peak in the new season.

There were many other players, however, whose contracts will expire in 2013 and who have not yet received any indication of a renegotiation or an extension. FS Kerry Rhodes will be an unrestricted free agent after next year, as will LB Joey Porter. The Cardinals will likely want to hold on to both of those players and could have helped themselves by making moves towards accomplishing that goal now.

NFL Draft

The final major part of the offseason comes in the form of the NFL draft as teams pick out players that they hope can become the next big name in the league—or at least grow into good contributors to their team.

The Cardinals went into the 2012 draft down a second-round pick thanks to the trade that brought Kevin Kolb to Arizona. At the time, they also had several positions of need to be filled, particularly at wide receiver and along the offensive line.

By selecting Michael Floyd with the 13th overall draft pick, the Cardinals bought themselves a shiny new offensive weapon that is sure to give opposing defenses headaches. Pairing Floyd with Larry Fitzgerald will be a delight for fans to watch, and should make the job a whole lot easier for whichever quarterback wins out as the starter.

A series of picks to help shore up the offensive line were also big for the Cards, particularly the pickup of Bobbie Massie. Levi Brown might have showed a lot of improvement in 2011, but the offensive line as a whole still needs a lot of work. Massie and Senio Kelemete will both help fill those gaps.

The remaining picks are your usual draft fare: players who look like they could be good but who might have some trouble adjusting to life in the NFL.

The Cardinals did what they needed to do by selecting a combination of talent that is ready to go (or as close to that as you can get in a process where no one is a sure thing) and talent that will have the opportunity to grow with the team over time. All things considered, the Cards did what they had to do in the draft, and they accomplished it with very few picks. 

Overall Offseason so Far

Overall, the Cardinals have spent their time in the offseason well. As we start to ramp up for the 2012 season with voluntary training and conditioning camps, movement around the league will start to slow down and rosters will begin to take form.

Looking at the moves the Cards have taken in the offseason, things look promising even with no other changes besides perhaps following through on talk of bringing back a few of their remaining veteran free agents on the defensive side of the ball.

The Cardinals built a lot of momentum towards the end of last year as the defense finally clicked and the offense seemed to settle down. Re-signing the key components on both sides of the ball and bringing in only a few, select free agents to help bolster positions of need was perhaps the best thing that the front office could have done in the offseason.

Only time will tell if that direction was the right one to take the Cards back to the next level of playoff contention in the upcoming season.