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Arizona Cardinals left tackle D.J. Humphries has heard the criticism for years. Arizona’s offensive line, the naysayers kept saying, has been one of the biggest reasons why the Valley’s NFL franchise keeps missing out on the postseason.
Even though the team seems to have upgraded that positional group into one of its major strengths entering the 2021 season, Humphries acknowledged that the men up front can longer bring up the rear.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re the reason why it’s going versus why it’s not,” he said last week in one of his most poignant comments ever during his seven-year tenure in Arizona, the longest among any active member of the roster.
Thanks to the offseason trade that brought in three-time Pro Bowl center Rodney Hudson from the Raiders, the continued maturation and stability on the left side of the line in Humphries and left guard Justin Pugh, and the re-signing of savvy veteran Kelvin Beachum at right tackle, the Cardinals just might have the strongest offensive line they’ve had since they went to Super Bowl XLII in 2009.
The starting job at right guard has been up for grabs since the start of training camp, but with veterans Justin Murray and Brian Winters finally back at practice and vying for the honors, along with second-year man Josh Jones holding down the fort there while those two missed significant chunks of camp, the Cardinals love their overall talent and depth at that position.
“I think at this point we’ve kind of created that mentality like, we’re going out here and putting our best foot forward in everything, every drill, every rep to make sure we’re prepared so when we go out there in that game, we’re the reason it’s going versus the reason why it’s not,” Humphries said.
“I think we’ve got a bunch of guys that are just eager to do the right things, play with the right technique and not let each other down. When you’ve got a bunch of guys doing that and they’re excited about playing football, it makes it really easy to go out there and compete.”
ESPN and the folks at NextGenStats seem convinced. And they both liked this group a whole year ago when the Cardinals’ O-line went from being tied for allowing the most sacks in the league during Kyler Murray’s rookie season (48), to 14th in 2020 when he was sacked just 27 times.
According to NextGenStats, Arizona had a team hurry rate probability of only 7.2% last season, the lowest rate in the league. ESPN, meanwhile, is projecting the Cardinals’ pass-blocking win rate in 2021 at 63%, which ranks third-best in the league. That’s on par with where the team was a year ago when it finished 8-8, missing out on the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
The unit was already trending up when the Cardinals were able to deal a third-round pick to the Raiders to land Hudson, 32, and a seventh-round pick. It could prove to be an all-out steal. Considered one of the best centers in the entire league, Hudson has missed only one game in the past five seasons, only allowed three sacks in the past six seasons and he was only penalized once in 2020.
He’s an enormous upgrade over last year’s primary starting center, Mason Cole, who was flagged for three penalties in one game alone last season, and he is ten times the player of former backup center Lamont Gaillard, a former sixth-round pick who was released and remains unemployed.
“You always evaluate yourself at the end of the season and see where you’re at and the center position was something that needed to be addressed,” Cardinals offensive line coach/run game coordinator Sean Kugler said. “When (Hudson) became available, it was a no-brainer.”
Initially, it appeared the Raiders were just going to release Hudson in the spring. They had decided to basically gut their entire offensive line and start over. But as soon as word leaked about Hudson, Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim jumped on the phone and started to broker a deal with his Las Vegas counterpart in Mike Mayock.
It’s likely the most important move the Cardinals have made this year. And it could go down as one of Keim’s greatest trade heists in history, which is saying a lot considering his deals in the past for Carson Palmer, Chandler Jones and DeAndre Hopkins, which all seemed like complete fleeces on his part.
“Steve did a good job behind the scenes to make things happen,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “We did not expect him to become available and when he was, we were thrilled. With his experience, with a young quarterback, to have a veteran center to have played the games he’s played and at the level he played at, we thought it was a home run for us.”
Murray has loved the addition of Hudson and said the communication and chemistry between the two has been outstanding and continues to grow every day. Added Hudson, “The more we can be around each other and communicate it’ll just keep growing.”
So long as the penalties shrink up front, everything should be better. No NFL team had more pre-snap penalties than the Cardinals a year ago, where false starts and delays of game ruled the day. Arizona led the league in penalty yardage and every first-and-10 that turned in a first-and-15 and every third-and-3 that turned into a third-and-8 were killers.
Kingsbury said things are trending in the right direction there and made it a point to mention Hudson’s arrival as a key turning point.
“We struggled in that area last year and he’s a leader in that room,” Kingsbury said. “For a guy that sets the example with the way he plays, the way he studies the game and the way he doesn’t get penalties, it’s a big deal.”
But it’s a group effort. It will take all five starters – and probably a couple of the backups – to keep the Cardinals’ offensive line a strength and not a weakness. In that regard, Humphries likes to call Pugh “the glue guy,” saying Pugh’s presence, professionalism and positivity is where it all starts.
“I thought I gave a lot of juice to the room and I think I still do,” Humphries said, “but Justin is definitely the kick-start for sure.”
Humphries calls Justin Murray the team’s “Swiss Army Knife” because of his versatility playing anywhere and having proven it, moving from tackle to both guard spots and never seemingly missing a beat. He also singled out Jones, the former third-round pick out of Houston, for being such an enthusiastic and eager young learner to familiarize himself at the guard position after being drafted as a tackle.
From top to bottom, it would appear the Cardinals might finally have what they’ve been lacking – a capable, competitive and commanding offensive line. If it doesn’t help translate into double-digit wins this season, those optics won’t matter. But the transition from then to now has been weighing on the entire franchise.
“Yeah,” Humphries conceded. “This is the first time in a while I haven’t heard it. But I think it’s something I always carried in the back of my mind.”
Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch.
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