This NFL offseason, Steven Ruiz will be offering his thoughts and grading every major deal that goes down, including contract extensions, trades and free-agent signings.
Cardinals LT D.J. Humphries was slated to hit the open market next month, but the Cardinals never allowed that to happen. On Monday night, they agreed to a three-year, $45 million deal with the 26-year-old. According to NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo, $29 million of the total value is guaranteed.
The structure of the contract will determine how good of a deal the Cardinals got here for their starting left tackle. The overall numbers aren’t flattering for Arizona, but if the contract is structured like the one the Buccaneers gave Donovan Smith last offseason (as OverTheCap.com’s Jason Fitzgerald theorized), then it’s a good bit of business.
Smith’s guaranteed money was comprised of his 2018 and 2019 base salaries and a $5.5 million roster bonus in the first offseason of the deal. If Humphries agreed to a similar pact, the Cardinals are somewhat protected if the 2020 season doesn’t go as planned for Humphries, who had struggled to stay healthy before the 2019 season when he played a full 16-game slate for the first time in his career. With no prorated signing bonus, the Cardinals won’t be stuck with a cap charge if they decide to move Humphries next offseason. Either way, if it is structured similarly to the Smith contract, this is essentially a two-year, $30 million deal.
At this point in his career, Humphries looks like a league-average blindside protector who still has plenty of room to grow. He can be a little over-aggressive with his hands, which can throw off his balance, but he typically does a good job of recovering and shuttling his man past the quarterback. In 2019, Humphries earned a PFF pass-blocking grade of 76.3, the highest of his career. According to Sports Info Solutions, his blown block rate is awfully similar to that of Jack Conklin and Anthony Castonzo, two of the top tackles available this offseason. And both are expected to sign larger deals than the one Humphries signed.
The big concern with Humphries is, of course, his health. He missed 18 games over the course of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. With a short-term contract that is highly tradeable, the Cardinals have done a decent job protecting themselves if Humphries’ poor injury luck does continue. If it doesn’t, and Humphries continues to develop as he did in 2019, this is a solid (possibly good) deal for Arizona.