Cardinals: Effects After Week One of Free Agency

The Cardinals went into this free agency with few needs on their team such as: a pass rusher, a running back and a tad bit of help on the offensive line.

After a week of free agency they even got a bit weaker with losses on the defensive side.

The big losses were DT Darnell Dockett to the Niners and DT Dan Williams to the Raiders. CB Antonito Cromartie left for the Jets and DE John Abraham who is set to most likely retire.

Arizona was able to pick up a couple of pieces to help recover from the lost of these players.

These players include LB Sean Weatherspoon, LB LaMarr Woodley, G Mike Iupati, G A. Q. Shipley, DL Corey Peters and DL Cory Redding. These pickups do help out the team in depth, talent and gives them two players. Most of these players are very “boom or bust” however. Even with the acquisitions, the Cardinals are still are behind their NFC-rival Seahawks.

The Hawks were able to pull an amazing magic trick when they got Jimmy Graham from the Saints for center Max Unger and a first round draft pick. The trade helps widen the gap between the Seahawks and the Cardinals but the other Superpowers of the NFC didn’t really improve themselves like the defending NFC champs.

The Rams did get some key pick ups but I’m not sold on how Nick Foles will do with the Rams.

The Niners are losing great players to retirement by the minute now, but I do like the Torrey Smith signing.

The Cowboys lost out on their all-pro running back as he jumped ship to the Eagles and they replaced him with Darren McFadden, someone with only one season of 1000 rushing yards after getting injured multiple years and was the 4^th overall pick in the 2008 draft, something tells me that marriage will end bad.

The Eagles are doing some crazy voodoo magic that could make the team a real Super Bowl contender or just set them back five to 10 years, the most notable move was the trade of LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso and Sam Bradford for Nick Foles.

The NFC south looks abysmal.

The Packers stayed relatively the same as they kept their big money playmaker and offensive tackle and didn’t dip into free agency like usual.

The Lions lost out on their two great young defensive tackles but got a great defensive end in Haloti Ngata and the Vikings look a lot better with the moves they made.

All these teams minus the Packers were pretty much on the same level as a healthy Cardinal team, and now the moves that were made in free agency makes the Cards a very deadly team if they pick up a few impact players.

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The Cards could possibly be a Super Bowl-contending team if they can use the rest of the offseason to fill up some holes they still have.

One of the holes they can get filled up fast is if they can get Adrian Peterson from the Vikings in a trade. Though there are a lot of teams who want to jump on the Peterson train, the big issue is his salary and how old he is. His salary cap would end up being around $12,000,000 a year if he doesn’t restructure his deal and he’s about to be 30. When you hit 30 as a running back, your prime is gone and you are going down fast.

The Cardinals already had Larry Fitzgerald restructure his contract; they may not want to deal with it with an aging running back.

What they’ll most likely do is they’ll get a running back in the draft and team him up with Andre Ellington for a running back duo.

The last true need is a true pass rusher, which are nowhere to be found in free agency at this point. They wanted linebacker Brian Orakpo but lost him to the Titans. Like the running back position, the Cardinals will likely invest a high draft pick in a pass-rusher since they couldn’t get one in free agency.

The first week of free agency was neutral with the Cardinals. They got more talent on their team, but didn’t exactly address any needs on their team that they had before the offseason.

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