The Arizona Cardinals suffered a blow to their defensive backfield with the sudden retirement of cornerback Malcolm Butler. However, the Cardinals still believe they are in a good spot.
Now that cornerback Robert Alford has returned from the COVID reserve, head coach Kliff Kingsbury feels good about the guys who will take the field in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans.
“I think we have three guys we feel really comfortable starting at outside corner,” Kingsbury told reporters Wednesday.
At the time, he had Byron Murphy, rookie Marco Wilson and recently acquired Luq Barcoo practicing with the starters.
While Kingsbury likes Barcoo, he was not one of the three players. Those players are Murphy, Wilson and Alford. At that time, though, Alford was still on the COVID list. He was activated from it on Friday, so the starters look set.
All offseason, throughout training camp and in the limited time the starters played, it was Murphy and Alford starting in base defenses. That will be the case still in Week 1. When they need three cornerbacks, Wilson, the Cardinals’ fourth-round pick, will come in and play outside while Murphy slides inside to the slot.
Wilson impressed in camp and in the preseason, which has the Cardinals excited and confident about him being in the lineup despite being a rookie.
This will be about as tough a test the Cardinals will face. The Titans had one of the league’s best offenses in 2020 and receivers Julio Jones and A.J. Brown are among the best in the league.
“We’re very confident in Alford, B-Murph and Marco and what we’ve seen from them,” Kingsbury said.
That confidence will be tested in nine days.
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