Arizona Cardinals succeed at losing their 7th in a row
Injuries continue to pile up for the Arizona Cardinals as they wrap up their home schedule for the 2025 season.
The Arizona Cardinals’ defensive line has underperformed despite significant offseason investments in draft picks and free agents.Rookie Walter Nolen has been a standout performer but is now out for the season with a knee injury, creating future uncertainty.
Back on the second day of training camp, coach Jonathan Gannon offered up what was then a non-controversial assessment of the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive line.
“We’ve got a deep, strong room there,” Gannon said.
His optimism was shared inside and outside the building. Over the previous two offseasons, Gannon and general manager Monti Ossenfort had invested more resources into their defensive line than any other position group.
With the 27th pick in 2024, they drafted Darius Robinson, a tweener who could rotate through multiple spots along the line. A year later, they spent the 16th pick on Walter Nolen, a defensive tackle whose first-step burst made him one of the most talented prospects in the class.
They augmented those draft picks by committing $29 million over two years to Dalvin Tomlinson, a space-eating nose tackle.
There were also the signings of Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols a season earlier, for $10 million and $7 million per year, respectively. Then, to top it off, the Cardinals landed a coup, convincing Calais Campbell to come home on a cheap one-year deal.
Meanwhile, coordinator Nick Rallis had pieced together a top-half defense in 2024 with duct tape and zip ties. Despite a glaring lack of talent up front, the Cardinals ranked 15th in points per game allowed.
Back in July, the case for optimism was simple. Imagine how good that defense could be now, with all this new talent on the defensive line. Plus, they had a new marquee edge rusher lining up next to them: Josh Sweat, the Cardinals’ biggest ticket free agent acquisition.
That was five months ago.
Now, the numbers tell a far more frustrating story. Through 15 games, the Cardinals rank 24th in yards per carry allowed and 25th in pressure rate. They are dead last in average by yards before contact allowed and bottom five at sacking opposing quarterbacks.
This week, Gannon still defended his defensive line.
“I think the collective has done a pretty good job,” Gannon said, although he did acknowledge inconsistency with the run defense and pass rush.
Rallis also pointed to consistency as an issue.
“When I feel like when we’re on point in the run game, I see everybody … playing with great technique and changing the math up front,” Rallis said. “And that’s what it takes, but you’ve gotta do it all the time.”
But the impact they envisioned has not materialized — not even close. It’s a significant part of the reason the Cardinals’ defense now ranks 29th in points per game, 25th in expected points added per play and 20th in DVOA, which accounts for their brutal strength of schedule. Each of those marks is worse than it was a year ago.
And the concern grows even greater when you look toward 2026, as the 3-12 Cardinals now must.
When healthy, Nolen has been by far the Cardinals’ most impactful defensive lineman, with a 15.1% pressure rate in his six games, per Pro Football Focus. No other defensive lineman in the NFL has generated as much pressure while playing as many snaps as Nolen.
“He’s shown he can be a blue-chipper,” Gannon said this week on Arizona Sports 98.7. “There’s no doubt in my mind. … He’s definitely a cornerstone that we can build around.”
But now, Nolen is out for the season with a knee injury. The Cardinals have been mum on his status but his injury could keep him out into the start of 2026.
The Cardinals’ only other above-average defensive lineman is Campbell, who has a 9.6% pressure rate, 5.5 sacks and eight tackles for loss. But he’s 39 and has previously said that he’s likely to retire after the season.
Outside of Campbell, four Cardinals’ defensive linemen have played at least 300 snaps this season. All four are among the league’s 15 least productive defensive linemen, per Pro Football Focus’ grading.
Of that group, PJ Mustipher is a free agent and Tomlinson is a cut candidate, as the Cardinals can save $9.4 million by releasing him. Nichols could also be cut to save $6 million, while Jones was cut last week, saving over $9 million.
That creates a pathway to refresh the room, but the lack of proven talent is an issue.
Only Robinson and Dante Stills are effectively guaranteed to be on the Week 1 roster. Neither has played at a high level this season. Robinson has fewer career pressures on 343 pass rush snaps than Nolen has on 99 pass rush snaps.
It was amid that poor output across the board that defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere reportedly accepted an offer for the same position at Michigan State last week. DeLattiboudere is still with the team through the end of the season, but he’s the first member of an embattled coaching staff who has accepted a job elsewhere.
Put it all together and the performance of the defensive line has been a nightmare outcome for the Cardinals.
This offseason, they need to invest in a quarterback and in offensive line reinforcements. They also have the typical peripheral needs, like any other team: a downfield receiving threat or a new middle linebacker.
One area that shouldn’t require investment is the defensive line, considering how many resources the Cardinals have already poured into that group.
But here they are.