The Arizona Cardinals are either good at defensive tackle or in trouble.<\/p>\n
Calais Campbell is the ageless wonder and was a valuable asset last season. But he is a free agent, and so far, no negotiations are on the table to keep him in-house. So is backup L.J. Collier and PJ Mustipher.<\/p>\n
Walter Nolen was taken in Round 1 of last year\u2019s NFL draft and performed very well when he played. But he began his rookie season on the reserve\/PUP list due to a calf injury suffered before training camp, and later sustained a knee injury that landed him on IR.<\/p>\n
And the other starter, Dalvin Tomlinson? His story is the same: from team to team, his production numbers are always below average, yet he remains employed. This past season, he had just 26 tackles and one sack. Is that worth the base salary of $5 million he was paid? That\u2019s $192, 308 per tackle. Where is the application for that job?<\/p>\n
If the Cardinals retain him for the final year of his contract, they will pay him $12.74 million. Yikes.<\/p>\n
What if Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort re-signs Campbell and then coupled him with Nolen? That would work. But every defensive line grouping has four guys that they rotate in and out all game in order to keep them fresh.<\/p>\n
Here is a good possibility for Arizona during free agency, which begins March 9.<\/p>\n
NFL draft: 2018 Round 4, pick #135 (Rams)<\/p>\n
Accolades: First Team All-Southland Conference (2016)<\/p>\n
2025 season: 15 starts, 25 tackles, 15 QB hits, 7.5 sacks, 6 tackles for loss, 23 pressures, 7 hurries, 8 knockdowns, 12 tackles for loss, 6 forced fumbles, 2 missed tackles, 517 snaps<\/p>\n
Projection: Three-years, $34 million<\/p>\n
Franklin-Myers is the third-best defensive tackle available in this year\u2019s free agency period. He quietly became a significant member of the Broncos\u2019 defensive success. His 7.5 sacks are an amazing stat coming from a defensive tackle, but he is a very good pass rusher from the interior.<\/p>\n
His pressures in the past two seasons rank #21 among all NFL defenders.<\/p>\n
What he offers the Cardinals is an experienced player known for his high-end pass-rushing ability. He is a master at finding seams inside and getting into the backfield. He also offers versatility in that he can line up off the edge. Excellent run defender.<\/p>\n
Franklin-Myers has a large wingspan of 82\u201d. Super aggressive up the middle or from the corners. Powerful first step and strong for his build.<\/p>\n
His negatives are that his technique needs to be tweaked. He also doesn\u2019t fight with his hands or use his length to appropriately keep his offensive line counterpart off his body.<\/p>\n
But Franklin-Myers has a great motor and would improve the Arizona defense from minute one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals are either good at defensive tackle or in trouble. Calais Campbell is the ageless wonder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,10166,2604,1327,7,6],"class_list":["post-753972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizona-cardinals-free-agency","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-cardinals","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116075129960438684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753972","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=753972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}