Feb. 18, 2026, 11:23 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
The 2026 league year is coming next month. It officially begins on March 11, with the legal negotiating period beginning on March 9.<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have many roster decisions to make before then.<\/p>\n Leading up to the new league year, we will profile every player on the roster, go over what they did last season, what their contract status is and what they face in 2026.<\/p>\n Next up is running back James Conner.<\/p>\n James Conner’s 2025 season<\/p>\n Conner had a very disappointing year, as he played in only three games before suffering a severe ankle injury that ended his season. Before he got hurt, though, he was not as explosive or effective as in previous seasons. He averaged only 3.0 yards per carry for 95 yards and one touchdown in three games.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>James Conner contract status<\/p>\n Conner enters the final year of his two-year, $19 million contract extension. He is scheduled to make nearly $6.4 million in salary and is due a $1 million roster bonus. His contract will count more than $9.8 million against the salary cap.<\/p>\n James Conner offseason outlook<\/p>\n Soon to be 31 years old, coming off a season-ending ankle when it looked like he might have lost a little something before he got hurt, it feels almost a lock that he will be a salary cap casualty and cut before March 15 when his roster bonus is due. The move will save the Cardinals nearly $7.6 million in cap space, leaving $2.25 million in dead money.<\/p>\n With a new head coach, we can expect the Cardinals to look for a new No. 1 running back.<\/p>\n Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 18, 2026, 11:23 p.m. MT The 2026 league year is coming next month. It officially begins on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,101172,95888,95895,95899,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-761895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-cardinals","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","16":"tag-sstsncardinals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","19":"tag-tagjames-conner","20":"tag-tagnfl","21":"tag-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","23":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116096242333332224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761895","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=761895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}