The Arizona Cardinal cleared the way for wide receiver Greg Dortch to have a more permanent role on offense. Hollywood Brown left in free agency to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs and Rondale Moore was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for quarterback Desmond Ridder.
Dortch now is in the top three on the depth chart with second-year pro Michael Wilson and newly acquired Chris Moore.
The Cardinals are expected to select a receiver early in the NFL draft and that player will likely end up being a starter.
But head coach Jonathan Gannon would like to see Dortch “keep expanding his role,” he told reporters in Orlando at the annual league meeting this past week (via AZCardinals.com).
After catching 52 passes for 467 yards and two touchdowns in 2022, he had a lesser role on offense in 2023. He had only 45 offensive snaps during the first 10 games of the season and caught one pass. He averaged 50 snaps per game in the final seven and finished with 24 catches for 280 yards and two scores.
“What I love about G is, I said, ‘Hey, man, like, you got to make sure that you’re concentrating on these certain things, and you got to do a better job of these things.’ He took that to heart and he worked on him, and he got better at those things,” Gannon said.
“He’s self-aware. I mean, ‘OK, like JG said, I need to work on this. This is what he wants to see, this is what I’m going to work on. This is what he’s going to see.’ He did that. I appreciate that. The thing I really love about him is that he’s got a smile on his face and he loves ball, and he loves to practice. He loves to play, he loves the process, loves to compete. I’ll line up with him.”
He projects right now to be the Cardinals’ primary slot receiver.
Kyler Murray trusts him to make plays. Dortch has proven he can be a playmaker on offense when given opportunities. Over the last two seasons, the consistent message from both Gannon and previous head coach Kliff Kingsbury was that he needed to get better at all the details of the position other than catching the ball and making plays.
That is why his role expanded over the second half of last season. Now the path is cleared for him to have a more permanent role.
We will see if he takes advantage of it.
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