Arizona Cardinals Should Pursue Jordan Cameron

Things are not good right now if you are a fan of the Cleveland Browns.

Kyle Shanahan, who was their offensive coordinator for a year, resigned after not seeing eye-to-eye with the Browns front office. Just over the past week, their star receiver Josh Gordon has been suspended for the entire 2015 season and their franchise quarterback Johnny Manzel voluntarily entered a rehab facility.

Unfortunately for Browns fans, it doesn’t get any better from there.

Now, their starting tight end Jordan Cameron appears to want out of town because of how bad things are in Cleveland. According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, Cameron is not interested in coming back to the Browns next season. Cameron becomes an unrestricted free agent in March where he’s free to sign with any team of his choice.

One of the those teams which should look into signing him is the Arizona Cardinals. Considering who the Cards have on their roster at the moment (John Carlson, Troy Niklas and Darren Fells are all signed through at least next season), Cameron would be a clear upgrade.

Now, Cameron is coming off of a tough season in 2014. The 26-year-old managed to only play in 10 games where he had 24 receptions for 424 yards and two touchdowns.

Cameron is only a year removed from his monster season in 2013 though where he had the likes of Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and Brian Hoyer throwing him the football. Going to his first Pro Bowl that year, the tight end had 80 catches for 917 yards and seven touchdowns.

There’s no denying Cameron’s talent. When he is on the top of his game, he’s one of the premiere pass catching tight ends in the league.

However, his recent injury history, namely his issue with concussions, is a definite concern. The former USC product is believed to have had three concussions over the last two seasons and that will scare some suitors away. It’s hard to say whether the Cardinals would be one of those teams.

If I were Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, I would give Cameron a short-term contract that’s incentive-based on how many games he plays and how he produces. That would put the Cardinals in a low risk, high reward type situation.

At the end of the day though, the likelihood of Cameron ending up in a Cardinals uniform is very slim. There will be teams (Oakland and Jacksonville come to mind) who will need a weapon like Cameron to add to their offense and they’ll have more money to outbid Arizona.

Adding him to the fold is still at least worth exploring however and I’m sure Keim and company will not consider exploring the Cameron option, but every avenue to try and improve this roster top to bottom.