The Arizona Cardinals played the first nine games of their season without franchise quarterback Kyler Murray. This practically de-railed their season before it even got started as Joshua Dobbs and Clayton Tune helped Arizona go a combined 1-8 to begin their year. The Cardinals finished 4-13 and in last place in the NFC West.
Arizona is a long shot to be relevant next season. They could pull off a huge turnaround like the Houston Texans did last season, but with +8000 odds to win Super Bowl 59 at DraftKings Sportsbook, it isn’t expected. Still, for being the fourth-worst team in 2023, they have the ninth-worst odds to win next year’s Super Bowl, suggesting at least slight improvement.
Below, let’s take a look at which players are hitting free agency for Arizona heading into the 2024 offseason.
2024 NFL Free Agency
Cardinals free agents
WR Marquise Brown
LB Josh Woods
CB Antonio Hamilton
IDL Jonathan Ledbetter
LG Elijah Wilkinson
LB Krys Barnes
WR Greg Dortch
TE Geoff Swaim
LG Trystan Colon
LS Aaron Brewer
IDL Leki Fotu
P Blake Gillikin
LB Zeke Turner
IDL Carlos Watkins
IDL L.J. Collier
RG Hayden Howerton
C Keith Ismael
CB Bobby Price
RB Marlon Mack
LG Pat Elflein
CB Rashad Fenton
Head coach Jonathan Gannon will return as the head coach and will continue the team’s rebuild. The good news for Arizona is that they really don’t have a bad free agent class this year. At first glance, it looks bad with 23 players hitting the market, but the Cardinals have already re-signed RG Carter O’Donnell and EDGE Jesse Luketa. Only three of Arizona’s remaining free agents played more than 50% of team snaps. Taking that a step further, 10 of the remaining free agents played fewer than 20% of team snaps, so weren’t exactly called on as a big contributor last season. The biggest loss will be Brown, but Arizona is in a prime position with the No. 4 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft
Franchise tag options
None
Arizona is continuing its rebuild, and there currently aren’t any free agents that they should use the tag on. Brown could have been one if he had been a better fit with the Cardinals, but his salary cap would’ve jumped from $13 million up to $21.8 million. Arizona doesn’t seem too interested in trying to bring Brown back to begin with and isn’t likely to use the franchise tag this season.