1 player who could be cut in the 2021 offseason

The Arizona Cardinals looked like a strong team for the NFC playoffs and at times the best team in the NFC West. They started the season with a record of 5-2 and finished it with a record of 8-8, playing a pair of away games in the second half of the season.

Kyler Murray was a bit shaky in his sophomore season, but still finished the year with 3,971 yards and 26 touchdowns with six picks and has had to deal with multiple injuries in recent months.

Murray also had a team leading 819 yards and just 150 yards behind Kenyan Drake, and it’s safe to say they will do their best to take that position in the offseason.

The Cardinals will receive about $13.5 million this season, and this will not change until the league sets an official salary cap for 2021.

The Cardinals seemed to be one of the best teams in all of football before breaking the 500-point record. They will need to improve in the coming months if they are to reach the qualifying series in 2021, as they play in one of the toughest divisions in football.

Kliff Kingsbury is determined to take this team to the next level, and they will have many questions to answer during the offseason, especially after a disappointing season finale.

The Cardinals have a lot of wiggle room, but the more the merrier. This player is in danger of being cut if the Cardinals want to take him to the next level.

BC Robert Alford

Alford ranks seventh in the number of people affected by the 2021 cap, with most of those going nowhere. Alford has $9 million to spend next year, and the Cardinals unfortunately saw Alford get injured in the last two seasons when they acquired him for a three-year contract a few years ago.

He just came off a trade with the Atlanta Falcons and hasn’t played since his trade with the Cardinals after some injuries late in the season. If he’s healthy, he’s fine, but the fact is he hasn’t been healthy since 2018, and even then he’s been battling injuries for most of his last year with the Falcons.

Alford made a name for himself by playing as a pick-six in Tom Brady’s famous 28-3 comeback against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl and proved himself worthy of a contract of stature.

ROBERT ALFORD 82 YARD PICK 6! pic.twitter.com/y89SB2alvs

– NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) February 6, 2017.

However, Alford will never be able to stay healthy for the Cardinals and will likely not be in Arizona in September. Veteran Patrick Peterson is also likely to leave Arizona, and the Cardinals will be looking to upgrade their high school with a few young pieces to complement Budda Baker, who is one of the safest in all of football.

Defense has been a problem for this team all season, and the high school is having a hard time making the turnaround. They were 18th in the league in interceptions, but 4th in sacks, largely thanks to Chandler Jones and Hason Reddick.

The offense is good, DeAndre Hopkins, Murray, and Chase Edmonds, who should be the main guy unless they make a deal with a free agent running back, and that’s good enough to keep the team in the game most of the time.

The Cardinals finished the season two games ahead of the San Francisco 49ers and missed the playoffs by one percentage point as the Chicago Bears finished with an identical record of 8-8. After this departure, the Cardinals will try to improve and modernize their 2021 team in every way possible.

The NFC West got a lot tougher when Matthew Stafford went to the Los Angeles Rams, and there are rumors about Deshaun Watson and the possibility that he could be the 49ers’ starter next year.

This means that the defense, particularly the secondary defense, needs to be modernized, and it is Alford that will likely be downsized or at least restructured.

The Cardinals don’t have much room to work with, and Alford could be one of many Cardinal players entering the open market in March. They need as much space as possible to fight for a playoff spot and a championship in the NFC West with one of the best young quarterbacks in the game.