Every season, there are players for each team who see a jump in performance and “level up” their play for the season. The Arizona Cardinals had several players who were surprises and exceeded expectations.
Who was the one who stood out most for the Cardinals in 2019?
According to ESPN in a breakdown of who “leveled up” for every team in 2019, it was linebacker Joe Walker for the Cardinals.
The 2016 seventh-round pick made significant strides in 2019 after being relied upon more this season than he has in his NFL career. Walker started 11 of 16 games this season, including the final 10. He had 58 tackles and a forced fumble while making strides in coverage. He was already an athletic linebacker in coordinator Vance Joseph’s system, but 2019 showed his on-field improvement.
Walker had started a few games before 2019 but was known more for his play on special teams. He earned his spot in the starting lineup over Haason Reddick because of his work in practice. He was not great but he was an upgrade over Reddick, who ended up moving from inside to outside linebacker late in the season.
Walker is a good pick for this but others deserve mention. As noted in one article on our site, several players were surprises in 2019. Right tackle Justin Murray came out of nowhere to start and play solid football. Kicker Zane Gonzalez was one of the best kickers in 2019 after struggling for the better part of two NFL seasons. Damiere Byrd had big games after being a bit of an afterthought signing.
But there is no denying that Walker took his play up a level over previous years.
He will be an unrestricted free agent in March. We will see if the Cardinals bring him back or if they try to upgrade the position.
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Ep. 256
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Ep. 255
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