Monti Ossenfort dropped some tea leaves for Cardinals fans during free agency and the draft, making moves that de-emphasized 2023 and improved positioning for 2024.
When the first-year general manager released DeAndre Hopkins on Friday, he spilled the tea for everyone to see.
Even though head coach Jonathan Gannon bristles at the thought of a rebuild, there is zero question now that Arizona has sacrificed the 2023 season in hopes of a better future.
And a complete teardown was the smartest decision Ossenfort could make.
The Cardinals are tanking, and that's a good thing. Take your medicine in 2023 and try to rejoin the chase in 2024 with a healthy Kyler + myriad draft picks + cap space.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) May 26, 2023
Ex-General Manager Steve Keim had a philosophy of competing every season, which he outlined in a radio interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM back in 2017.
“I never want to approach another season with the mindset that we’re building or it’s a step back,” Keim said then. “That’s not fair to your fans, it’s not fair to our organization. I think you have to do everything you can to try to improve your roster, and so-to-speak, go for it every year.”
Keim proved his point by refusing to trade Patrick Peterson during a dreadful 2018 campaign in which the Cardinals were the worst team in the NFL.
And he didn’t veer in 2022, adding Chosen Anderson for a pair of draft picks a couple weeks before the trade deadline, despite Arizona showing no signs of being a true contender.
Keim also resisted Hopkins overtures at the deadline, even though a source told me the All-Pro wide receiver would have preferred to be traded after the Cardinals lost to the Vikings on October 30 to drop to 3-5.
Ossenfort has no such qualms punting on a season with a low ceiling, and by taking such a forward-looking approach these past few months, he could be positioning the Cardinals for a quick turnaround.
Definite departure from Steve Keim's "I think you have to go for it every year" philosophy. Fits with what most owners tend to do in going for the opposite of what wasn't working. https://t.co/3tNypr6NVf
— Blake Allen Murphy (@blakemurphy7) January 17, 2023
By letting Zach Allen and Byron Murphy walk in free agency, Ossenfort saved cap dollars and set the team up for one or two compensatory draft picks in 2024.
By trading down from No. 3 in the draft, he picked up a Texans first-rounder in 2024 that could be a pivotal piece in the rebuild if Houston plays as badly as projected.
And while the departure of Hopkins didn’t net a draft pick, as widely expected early on, Ossenfort realized the sunk cost and still pulled the trigger.
While the Cardinals took on $21 million in dead money from the move, they added a little bit of cap space in 2023 and a lot of it in 2024.
They now have the third-most 2023 cap space in the NFL at $24.3 million, and won’t add anyone of financial consequence before or during the season, allowing the majority of it to be rolled over to 2024.
