{"id":899727,"date":"2026-05-24T06:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/899727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:33:17","slug":"arizona-cardinals-cb-max-melton-has-something-to-prove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/899727\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Cardinals CB Max Melton has something to prove"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> are in the final phase of their offseason program with OTAs. It is still voluntary, but it is the first offense vs. defense action. There is actual competition now, as they can go 7-on-7 or 11-on-11.<\/p>\n

Some players enter this year with something extra to prove because of how the roster looks right now.<\/p>\n

One such player is cornerback Max Melton.<\/p>\n

Max Melton has something to prove<\/p>\n

The cornerback room was decimated by injuries last season. Star Thomas and Sean Murphy-Bunting missed the year with knee injuries. Garrett Williams missed a lot of time between a knee injury and a torn Achilles.<\/p>\n

Even with all that, Melton, drafted in the second round in 2024, saw his role decrease. He played only special teams in his final game of the season.<\/p>\n

Now, entering the 2026 season, Will Johnson is a starter, Denzel Burke solidified himself as a starter, and both Thomas and Murphy-Bunting return.<\/p>\n

Melton needs to reestablish himself. He missed time with injuries and then saw Burke take his playing time.<\/p>\n

He is a candidate to be traded, but whether or not that is the case, he needs to step up to have a role in 2026.<\/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

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals CB Max Melton has something to prove<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals are in the final phase of their offseason program with OTAs. It is still voluntary,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,8288,13525,9599,6,6001,9142],"class_list":["post-899727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-cardinals","tag-football","tag-garrett-williams","tag-knee-injuries","tag-max-melton","tag-nfl","tag-offseason-program","tag-sean-murphy-bunting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116628160719893746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899727","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=899727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}