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$31 Million Cardinals Defender Named a Potential Trade Candidate

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By John Vaccaro | Last updated May 5, 2025 7:29 PM ET

The 2025 NFL offseason has seen the Arizona Cardinals make huge improvements to their defense.

They used free agency to add Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson, and Calais Campbell to a defensive line that disappointed in 2024.

The defensive improvements continued in the draft as the Cardinals spent six of their seven picks on that side of the ball. That included spending their first two picks on Walter Nolen and Will Johnson, who could both be Week 1 starters.

While this defensive overhaul has been good news for the organization and their head coach, who is a former defensive coordinator, there are some players will be negatively impacted by the moves.

One of those players is defensive tackle Justin Jones.

Pro Football and Sports Network's Sterling Xie named Jones as a candidate to be either cut or traded by the Lions.

The defensive tackle position has gotten very crowded in Arizona this offseason.

This offseason's additions are joining Jones and Bilal Nichols, who the team just signed last year, and Darius Robinson, who they drafted a year ago.

That leaves Nichols and Jones both looking at the potential end of their time with the Cardinals, but neither is a particularly good option to cut.

If Jones is cut after June 1, the Cardinals save $95 thousand. For Nichols, that number would be $140 thousand.

That number jumps to $7.1 million if the Cardinals trade him after June 1.

Jones could be the more attractive trade piece of the two DTs signed in 2024.

He only played in three games during the 2024 season, but had a strong 2023. During his last season with the Bears, Jones was responsible for 4.5 sacks, 49 total tackles, and 10 tackles for loss.

That could be enough to convince another team that he'd be a good addition to their rotation.

Jones will have to hope it is because there isn't a whole lot of room in the Cardinals' rotation for him right now.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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