{"id":168648,"date":"2025-06-29T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/168648\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T20:33:12","slug":"cardinals-isaiah-adams-in-pole-position-for-starting-rg-job-rb-trey-benson-hopes-to-earn-more-carries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/168648\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals’ Isaiah Adams In “Pole Position” For Starting RG Job; RB Trey Benson Hopes To Earn More Carries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah Adams<\/a>, one of four third-round picks the Cardinals made in 2024, started at right guard over the last five games of his rookie season after seeing sporadic playing time prior to that point. Per Darren Urban of the team\u2019s official website, Adams is in \u201cpole position\u201d to earn the starting RG gig<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the estimation of Pro Football Focus, Adams did not play particularly well in his limited action last year. PFF assigned him a middling grade of 58.4, which placed him as the 52nd-best guard out of 77 qualified players. His 50.3 pass-blocking grade was the main culprit for that mark, which was mitigated by his above-average performance in the run game.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether the club\u2019s view of Adams\u2019 work aligns with PFF\u2019s evaluation, the Cardinals clearly saw enough to pencil him as a first-team blocker. One of his primary needs this offseason was to improve his strength, which he acknowledged was on the top of his agenda.<\/p>\n

Urban leaves open the possibility of a veteran addition once training camp gets underway next month. However, given Adams\u2019 draft status, the longtime Cardinals beat believes the club wants Adams to win the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arizona did add<\/a> Royce Newman<\/a> in free agency this offseason. Newman served as the Packers\u2019 primary right guard in 2021, but his playing time has gone down in each subsequent season. Green Bay waived him last August, and though the Bucs claimed him on waivers, he appeared in a grand total of three snaps for Tampa Bay in 2024. It therefore appears the RG job is Adams\u2019 to lose.<\/p>\n

One of Adams\u2019 fellow 2024 third-rounders, running back Trey Benson<\/a>, still finds himself behind RB1 James Conner<\/a> on the Cardinals\u2019 depth chart. Conner played in a career-high 16 games last season, which allowed him to set a personal high-water mark of 1,508 scrimmage yards while maintaining a healthy 4.6 yards-per-carry rate. He also added nine total TDs, and his efforts earned him an extension<\/a> that will keep him in place through 2026.<\/p>\n

Because of Conner\u2019s performance and availability, Benson was limited to 63 totes in 2024. Like Conner, Benson managed 4.6 yards per carry, and he added bulk this offseason while simultaneously improving his speed, power, and explosiveness in an effort to earn more carries (via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conner, 30, dealt with a lingering right knee injury last season, and though he was mostly able to play through it, the Cardinals shut him down<\/a> for the 2024 finale (along with Benson<\/a>). We have not heard anything troublesome about Conner\u2019s health, but it would not be surprising for Arizona to lighten the veteran\u2019s workload a bit in 2025 to see what one of its recent draftees can do.<\/p>\n

For his part, Conner believes Benson is up to the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s worked unbelievably this offseason,\u201d Conner said of Benson. \u201cShowed up every single day, working out together and yeah, he wants it. He wants it bad. That\u2019s because he knows the type of player he can be. We all know that. \u2026 He was already a freak athlete before, but now \u2026 He\u2019s a grown man out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaiah Adams, one of four third-round picks the Cardinals made in 2024, started at right guard over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,10932,757,6,25211],"class_list":{"0":"post-168648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-isaiah-adams","14":"tag-james-conner","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-trey-benson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114768563761449745","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}