March 20, 2026, 9:48 a.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have made several moves in free agency so far. They have addressed many positions. While their moves might not be completely done, we know more or less what each position looks like.<\/p>\n The big question is: are the Cardinals are better as a result of the moves?<\/p>\n Over the next several articles, we will look at each position group and take a look at which players are not returning and who is new to determine whether they have improved at the position or not.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at safety.<\/p>\n 2026 Cardinals offseason moves at safety<\/p>\n Gone:<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Thompson, after seven years with the Cardinals, left to sign a three-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n Returning:<\/p>\n Budda BakerDadrion Taylor-DemersonJoey BlountKitan Crawford<\/p>\n Everyone remained under contract. Blount missed most of the season with an injury, giving Crawford a chance as a seventh-round rookie to play.<\/p>\n New additions:<\/p>\n Wingard joins the Cardinals on a one-year deal after a season being a full-time starter for the second time in his seven-year career.<\/p>\n Are the Cardinals better at safety?<\/p>\n No, and probably a little worse<\/p>\n Thompson is a better safety than Wingard, as evidenced by the two very different contracts they got. Thompson costs a lot more and was pretty ordinary for the last couple of seasons. That said, he can play outside, in the slot, in the box and deep. He is a good tackler.<\/p>\n Wingard graded out favorably against the run and less so in coverage.<\/p>\n Now, if Taylor-Demerson ends up stepping up into Thompson’s old role and plays well, the Cardinals don’t lose anything.<\/p>\n However, there isn’t way to say that on paper they are better at safety. At best, they are the same.<\/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":"March 20, 2026, 9:48 a.m. MT The Arizona Cardinals have made several moves in free agency so far.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,95896,95888,95899,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-826876","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-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnfl","21":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","22":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116272076248311602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826876","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=826876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}