Kennard joins three other Cardinals, including fellow OLB Markus Golden, on the COVID list. Kennard won’t be able to play against the Cowboys.
The Arizona Cardinals suddenly have depth issues at outside linebacker. On Wednesday, they placed outside linebacker Devon Kennard to the COVID list, joining fellow outside linebacker Markus Golden and others.
By landing on the list Wednesday it means, even with updated guidelines for league protocols, he will be unable to be activated before the Cardinals play the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.
Kennard would have been in line to start on Sunday in place of Golden. Instead, it leaves them with Chandler Jones, Dennis Gardeck and rookie Victor Dimukeje at the position. Isaiah Simmons can also play outside linebacker.
The Cardinals now have four players from the 53-man roster on the COVID list — Kennard, Golden, offensive lineman Sean Harlow and cornerback Breon Borders. Another — safety Javon Hagan — is on the practice squad COVID list.
The move saves them more than $1.7 million against the cap. The only had a little more than $1 million in cap space before the move.
The Arizona Cardinals have been getting close to the salary cap this season, as they have to add players to the roster when others land on injured reserve and they elevate players from the practice squad. To create some extra space, they have restructured linebacker Devon Kennard’s contract, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.
Kennard’s salary for 2021 is $6.25 million. Yates reports the Cardinals converted nearly $2.6 million into a bonus, which spreads out over three contract years — this year, next year and the voiding 2023 season. It saves the Cardinals more than $1.7 million in cap space.
According to the NFLPA website on Tuesday, the Cardinals had just under $1.2 million in cap space remaining. This move gives them some breathing room during the second half of the season. Of course, it comes with a cost, as Kennard’s cap hit in 2022 and 2023 now increase by more than $860,000.
The preseason is coming to a close and final cuts are approaching. Who are players other teams might be interested in?
The Arizona Cardinals, along with the rest of the NFL, will have to cut their rosters down to 53 players by Tuesday afternoon. This will lead to a number of trades around the league, usually involving Day 3 picks.
The Cardinals could have some players who might draw interest from around the league as the final cutdown date approaches.
While there are no actual reports of trade talks, these are the players on the roster for the Cardinals who could draw interest from other teams.
We break down the players on the roster, the major questions at the position, the position battles and roster outlook at outside linebacker.
We have seen some practices of training camp for the Arizona Cardinals. We continue our preview of each position group, breaking down the roster, the questions, position battles and roster outlook.
Between catching COVID, getting hurt and not getting to play in front of his hometown fans, he is looking at this season as a new start.
Linebacker Devon Kennard signed a three-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals last year after being released by the Detroit Lions. It marked a homecoming for him, as he grew up in Arizona and was a stud high school football player.
His father, Derek, played for the Cardinals, so to join the team his father played for and the team he grew up watching and rooting for was special.
However, because of the pandemic, it wasn’t the same.
He appeared on the Jim Rome Show recently and was asked about the 2021 season, his eighth in the NFL.
“Honestly I’m excited to give this year a clean slate and a fresh start, because last year, with how weird it was with COVID, it didn’t hit all the way,” he said.
Playing in front of his home crowd was the same as it would have been because there weren’t really any crowds. There was only limited fan attendance allowed to the Cardinals’ home games for most of the season.
So Kennard is treating 2021 like his first here.
“I’m really looking forward to this season with fans back in the stands and it being more of a normal game day experience,” he said.
Last year was tough on Kennard for more than just the lack of fans in the stadium. He suffered a calf injury and then he had to isolate after testing positive for the virus himself.
He felt “lucky” because he did not have any symptoms, but it was hard on him as a football player because he had to do what he called “caveman workouts” while isolated for 10 days.
“It was pretty funny,” he said. “I stayed near a park, just an open field. I would go and run a bunch of sprints, and I was in the room doing pushups nonstop and trying to figure out how to stay ready.”
Upon returning from his isolation, he didn’t play much after that. His spot in the defensive rotation was taken by Markus Golden, whom the Cardinals re-signed this offseason.
So Kennard would like to have last season back for a couple of reasons.
The Cardinals clearly still have a place and a plan for him. They had the opportunity to release him at the start of the new league year and save money against the salary cap, but they chose not to and his $6.25 million salary is fully guaranteed.
Between catching the virus, getting injured, losing playing time and not getting to play in front of a full stadium of home fans, there is good reason for Kennard to give this coming season a fresh start.
“I’ll take us over anybody when the time comes, but we’ve got to continue to put the work in and earn it.”
The Arizona Cardinals have upgraded their roster this offseason. They have better depth at quarterback. The offensive line is better. the receivers are better. The defensive line is better. They got more athletic at linebacker. They upgraded their kicker.
Linebacker Devon Kennard likes how the team has been assembled so far and talked about it on the Jim Rome Show.
“On paper, we have a really good team, but we’ve got to go and put the work in,” he told Rome. “I like how we started this offseason.”
He thought the work the team did in OTAs and minicamp was good.
“It was a great atmosphere, everybody was working hard, really gelling and building those relationships, and that goes a long way,” he said.
He wouldn’t put any sort of real expectation as to what the team could achieve, but you can tell he is both excited and realistic.
“I’ll take us over anybody when the time comes, but we’ve got to continue to put the work in and earn it.”
His 2021 salary became fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2021 league year, as SI.com’s Howard Balzer reported a year ago.
Entering the offseason, many have believed the Arizona Cardinals would move on from outside linebacker Devon Kennard. After signing him to a three-year, $20 million contract, he had a disappointing season.
He had seven tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits in his first three games. Then he injured his ankle and missed two games. He then contracted COVID-19 and missed more time.
By the time he got healthy, the team had acquired Markus Golden in a trade and Golden took his spot in the starting lineup.
Kennard finished with three sacks, 13 tackles, five tackles for loss and nine quarterback hits in 13 games, playing only 362 defensive snaps, 33% of the team’s total defensive snaps. It was the fewest snaps he had played since his rookie season.
Set to count $8 million against the salary cap in 2021, he was a candidate to be a cap casualty.
That can’t happen now.
SI.com’s Howard Balzer reported on Kennard’s contract a year ago something that has not been caught by Over the Cap or other cap websites.
Kennard’s 2021 salary is fully guaranteed.
It didn’t start that way.
According to Balzer, Kennard’s $6.25 million salary for 2021 was guaranteed only for injury.
His $6.25 million base salary in 2021 is currently guaranteed for injury only and becomes fully guaranteed if he is on the roster on the fifth day of the 2021 league year.
The Cardinals could have cut him at the start of the new league year before his salary fully vested. They chose not to. Now, they will have no cap savings by cutting him and would have to pay him the full $6.25 million, which is financially foolish.
They could still trade him, but it seems unlikely a team would trade for him with that contract.
So while the Cardinals signed J.J. Watt and re-signed Markus Golden, the Cardinals obviously still had plans for Kennard.
Kennard is a perfect complement for Chandler Jones and Watt. Kennard is a smart run defender and has a ton of experience in dropping into coverage. If Watt is going to slide from the defensive interior to the edge in nickel packages, Kennard can play in base packages.
2020 was a rough year for him. But it would seem the team did not give up on him.
Unless they find a trade partner, Kennard will be on the roster in 2021 and hopefully plays quite a bit, so that $6.25 million salary doesn’t go to waste.
These players’ spots on the roster might be redundant. If a trade were to happen, they might be the players to know.
After June 1, players who are released or traded are treated differently for salary cap purposes. After June 1, players with multiple years left on their contracts have their dead money spread out over the length of their contract, rather than the whole amount being accelerated into the current year.
The Cardinals have a few players they might consider trading after June 1.
What happens at this position is one of the bigger questions of the offseason for the Cardinals.
The Arizona Cardinals are in the offseason and are evaluating what to do to improve and address the roster in 2021.
As we have done previously with the quarterback, running back, wide receiver,offensive line and the defensive line positions, we will look at each position group, how it did in 2020, who is on the roster moving forward and what the Cardinals need at the position moving forward.
Before the start of the new league year, the Cardinals should make these moves to both secure talent and save cap space.
The Arizona Cardinals are still more than a month away from the start of free agency. Because of where the team wishes to be in the next year, they will likely make some surprisingly aggressive moves.
However, before those happen, there are some moves the Cardinals can make.
Before free agency begins officially and they make their big moves, they can do some things with their own players before the start of the new league year.
