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The Arizona Cardinals have been a pretty busy team this offseason, mainly in regards to their quarterback situation, which they finally decided to overhaul. It was about time, as fans couldn’t bear to see one more week of the John Skelton and Kevin Kolb show. They got Carson Palmer, and they moved on to other needs. One of those needs, was improving their secondary.
Arizona arguably did that in last weekend’s draft, when they selected none other than the Honey Badger, Tyrann Mathieu. From the sounds of it, Mathieu will be playing safety for the Cardinals, or at least that’s where he’ll start out. Whether or not he’ll make it in the pros, that’s up for debate.
The Cardinals passed on secondary help for the rest of the draft, which led some believe they weren’t done acquiring players. Then just four days later, news broke that they’d made a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs to get CB Javier Arenas. The team sent fullback Anthony Sherman to KC, and attained the services of a talented fourth year player.
Arenas, cousin of basketball’s Gilbert Arenas, was a second round pick out of Alabama in 2010. He’ll be going into the final year of his rookie deal in 2013, and there’s no doubt he’s playing for a new contract going forward.
Arenas is a short corner (5′ 9″), who’s best suited to play in nickel and dime situations, while also being available in the return game. Sound familiar? Arenas and Mathieu seem to be very similar in size and skill set, and perhaps another reason why the Honey Badger will play safety.
All in all, the Cardinals pulled off a great trade. They dealt a fullback that wasn’t going to fit in their new offensive system, while gaining more depth for their secondary. Arenas is a low-risk acquisition, because his contract is up at the end of the year. If he doesn’t pan out, they can let him walk. If he does pan out, the Cardinals should look to potentially lock him up for a few more years.
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