With the Super Bowl behind us, the offseason rumor mill is back in business. For the Arizona Cardinals, the next month is quite possibly the most important for the immediate future of the franchise.
It is all but written that the Cardinals front office will go all-out this offseason. General manager Steve Keim and head coach Kliff Kingsbury find themselves in a make or break year. Whether the moves are smart or not, we’ll likely see the Cards go for it all in attempts to become a contender in 2021.
Going into last season, many argued the Cardinals had the best wide receiver corps in the NFL. What a valid argument it appeared to be, given the arrival of superstar WR DeAndre Hopkins to complement Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk. Now, it can be argued that wide receiver is one of the team’s most pressing needs.
Regardless of the imminent decision of Larry Fitzgerald’s future, the Cards need another star at receiver. Luckily for Keim and the front office, this free agent class is one of the best in recent memory.
Enter Kenny Golladay of the Detroit Lions.
Golladay has quietly put on a fantastic resumé with the Lions, one that has gone under the radar with Detroit’s lack of success. In 2019, he appeared to blossom into a true No. 1 receiver, with nearly 1,200 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. This year, however, he hardly played due to injury(it remains to be seen whether or not this was a business decision with the Lions being out of playoff contention early). When he did play, however, it truly made a difference for the Lions. Ironically, one of his only games played was against the Cardinals, which resulted in a win for Detroit.
In a 5-10 season for the Lions, they were 3-1 in games Kenny Golladay played.
Golladay would give Kyler Murray and the Cardinals another tall, dominant outside receiver, making it extraordinarily difficult on opposing defenses. Last season, the reality surrounding the Cardinals offense is they were only great when DeAndre Hopkins was great. Hopkins can’t always do it all; opposing defenses eventually have enough and create an entire gameplan around him. Defenses in 2020 did not have much else to worry about in terms of Arizona’s receivers, putting all their chips into stopping Hopkins.
Kenny Golladay would give the Cardinals another receiving threat and draw away some attention from Nuk, making him even more dangerous. It would also move Christian Kirk down a spot in the depth chart, potentially allowing him to have a breakout season. Larry Fitzgerald, should he return, would still have playing time against team’s fourth defensive backs. The Cardinals will still, at his age, will take that matchup.
The Lions’ standout receiver has expressed his desire to stay in Michigan, but nothing is set in stone, particularly with the new regime and an apparent rebuild forthcoming.
“I want to be here,” Golladay told ABC Detroit.
“I like the city. Like what’s going on. They drafted me here, so I just want to show my loyalty. They believed in me and say, if a contract doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. I’ll go somewhere else and just ball out and play. But, like I said, I’m a loyal person. Of course I want to be here.”
Should Golladay hit the market, the Cardinals will have to open owner Michael Bidwill’s personal pocketbook for him. He’ll command top dollar despite the reduced cap situation. There’s a chance, however, that his price goes down a bit due to the number of talented receiver options this year.
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