The Arizona Cardinals over the last few seasons have had a trend of adding and counting on players with questions about durability. In part, it was something they have done because of salary cap restraints and acquiring higher-risk, high-players is a way to succeed.
The problem is before 2019, it often came back to haunt them, especially on the offensive line.
The gamble paid off in 2019.
They stuck with D.J. Humphries and Justin Pugh, both of whom have earned the reputations of being injury-prone. Both started all 16 games this season and only missed a handful of snaps because of injury.
It didn’t work with Marcus Gilbert, who tore his ACL before the first game of the season.
But it did work on the defense with Jordan Hicks. He missed 21 games in the previous four seasons. He not only played all 16 games this season, he led the NFL in defensive snaps played, which was 100% of the team’s defensive snaps.
This doesn’t mean that they should keep going with this trend, but it means that it can work out.
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Ep. 254
Ep. 253:
