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These Cardinals players needed to play better against the Chiefs.
While the Arizona Cardinals lost their preseason game Friday night to the Kansas City Chiefs, some players stood out for good performances. Some did not help themselves.
Who are the players to see their stock fall in the game Friday night?
Read on!
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These players were hurt by no preseason last year and now have an uphill battle to make the team.
The Arizona Cardinals will get some offseason work in OTAs and mandatory minicamp, unlike in 2020, and should have a preseason this year. Some young players were hurt by the lack of them a year ago.
Now, with new additions to the roster, some players find themselves on the roster bubble as OTAs begin.
What they do with their practice reps and in the preseason will be critical.
Who are those who really need a good offseason and preseason?
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We make the Cardinals’ 2020 draft selections with the benefit of hindsight.
A year later, we can look at the Arizona Cardinals’ draft class and wonder if they made the right selections. The Cardinals didn’t get many contributions from their rookie class. Linebacker Isaiah Simmons played a limited role. Running back Eno Benjamin was never active. Linebacker Evan Weaver spent the year on the practice squad. Tackle Josh Jones played very few snaps all season. Defensive linemen Leki Fotu and Rashard Lawrence missed time with injuries and got some playing time.
Should the Cardinals have made other selections?
Let’s go back to each pick in last year’s draft and do a redraft.
They bring back two former draft picks, three from this year’s rookie class and more.
The Arizona Cardinals, with their season coming to a close, have begun to build their offseason roster. They announced Tuesday the signing of 15 players to contracts for the 2021 season, known as futures deals.
All but one player spent at least the season on the practice squad for the Cardinals.
The following players are now under contract for next season:
Two — Dogbe and Weaver — are former Cardinals draft picks. Dogbe was selected in the seventh round in 2019 and Weaver was a sixth-round pick in 2020.
Richardson has been with the team since 2019. Walker, Ward and Whittaker were part of the team’s undrafted rookie class in 2020.
Martin was signed in training camp. Hogan returns after joining the Cardinals in 2017 as an undrafted rookie.
Bunting recently worked out with the team. The rest joined the team at some point during the season.
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Evan Weaver, Evan Baylis, Michael Dogbe and Jace Whittaker are protected this week.
The Arizona Cardinals protected four practice squad players this week, making it so they cannot be signed by another team until next week. There is a new name in the four players.
According to Tuesday’s NFL transaction report, the Cardinals protected the following four players:
Baylis has been signed to the active roster and has played games. Dogbe was elevated this last week and plays. Whittaker has gotten playing time.
The new name is Weaver, the Cardinals’ sixth-round pick this year but did not make the team. The Cardinals do not appear to have any depth issues at linebacker but the first injury report of the week has not been released yet. It will come out Wednesday afternoon.
Baylis’ protection makes sense because of the status of tight end Darrell Daniels, who missed last week’s game with an ankle injury. Likewise, the Cardinals currently only have four defensive linemen on the 53-man roster. Whittaker gives extra depth in the secondary and special teams flexibility.
The Cardinals currently have two vacancies on the 53-man roster after safety Deionte Thompson was placed on the COVID list. More roster moves are certainly to come before Sunday.
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The inside linebacker room was one of the tighter competitions in training camp.
It is past the cutdown deadline but the Arizona Cardinals have not yet announced the final moves to get their roster down to 53 players. However, it appears that one of their draft picks from this year didn’t make the cut.
According to ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss, rookie linebacker Evan Weaver was released.
Cardinals 6th-round pick Evan Weaver was released, per source. The linebacker could be a practice squad target for Arizona.
— Josh Weinfuss (@joshweinfuss) September 5, 2020
Weaver’s release likely means that the inside linebackers behind starters Jordan Hicks and De’Vondre Campbell will be Isaiah Simmons, special teams standout Ezekiel Turner and Tanner Vallejo.
Weaver will likely be targeted to bring back to the practice squad if he clears waivers.
Drafted in the sixth round, he was a standout at California, where he put up ridiculous numbers and was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.
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All six signed on the dotted line and had photos taken of the event.
The Arizona Cardinals and their entire 2019 draft class agreed to terms on four-year rookie contracts earlier in the week. On Saturday, their deals were made official when they went down to team headquarters in Tempe and signed the contracts.
The team released photos of each player signing their deal.
The only contract specifics we know are about their two top picks, linebacker Isaiah Simmons and tackle Josh Jones.
Simmons’ deal is for more than $20.6 million over the four years and has a fifth-year team option. He received nearly $12.6 million in a signing bonus.
Jones’ deal is worth more than $4.8 million over the four seasons and he receives a signing bonus of nearly $1.08 million.
The other players the Cardinals drafted were defensive linemen Leki Fotu and Rashard Lawrence, both drafted in the fourth round, linebacker Evan Weaver, their sixth-round pick, and running back Eno Benjamin, selected in the seventh round.
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All the draft picks are now under contract, as rookies had to report to training camp Tuesday.
The Arizona Cardinals have taken care of the contracts of all six of their 2020 draft picks. Rookies were scheduled to report to training camp Tuesday and on Wednesday the team announced all six draft pick have agreed to terms on four-year contracts.
First-round pick Isaiah Simmons’ deal as well as third-round pick Josh Jones’ were both reported on Tuesday with the financials.
Their 2020 draft class was as follows:
Round 1: LB Isaiah Simmons, Clemson
Round 3: OT Josh Jones, Houston
Round 4: DL Leki Fotu, Utah
Round 4: DL Rashard Lawrence, LSU
Round 6: LB Evan Weaver, California
Round 7: RB Eno Benjamin, Arizona State
This is the latest the Cardinals have gotten their draft picks in many years but things were complicated this offseason with facilities being closed to players because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Implications for the salary cap are not yet known exactly for the contracts other than Simmons’ and Jones’.
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Ep. 269
Ep. 268
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Ep. 267
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Only Isaiah Simmons will be expected to be an impact player overall as a rookie.
Now that the Arizona Cardinals have their draft picks and now it is time to look forward to what they can do in the season, we should have reasonable expectations for each player.
What are reasonable expectations from theses players in their rookie season?
Simmons has the biggest expectations of any of the Cardinals’ draft pick, and he should, as he was the eighth overall pick in the draft.
Simmons should be an impact player in defense. He probably will not start in base defensive packages but should play a number of roles and will have the opportunity to do a lot of things. He should be a sub-package player coming in to cover tight ends and running backs and rush the passer.
He should play a lot and make a lot of plays.
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The six players had pretty good college resumes. The Cardinals drafted two conference defensive players of the year and six captains.
Over the last week, we have covered in detail the Arizona Cardinals’ six draft picks, who they are20nd what they say. Let’s look back at the things they accomplished while they were in college and see what honors and awards they earned.
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