3 Worst Free Agent Signings In Arizona Cardinals History

There are many players than can be judged as bad signings in hindsight because they were overpaid and underdelivered, but it is hard to beat the Darius Philon story for its unusualness.

Philon was a sixth round draft pick for the San Diego Chargers in 2015 and after playing out a fairly unremarkable rookie contract, he hit the open market and landed with the Cardinals on a 2 year/$10 million deal.

Arguably, this deal was already an overpay considering Philon's lack of production but he did have back to back years of 4 sacks and at least looked like a solid veteran presence to help out then rookie Zach Allen.

Philon's contract is not why he made this list, however. In early August 2019, he was arrested in Phoenix for allegedly pointing a gun at a woman and threatening to shoot her outside a strip club on a Friday night.

Without ever seeing him on the field for a regular season game, the Cardinals released him on Saturday.

Terrell Suggs

Suggs was a Valley legend in some respects before his NFL career as a standout Arizona State Sun Devil. Many in the area were desperate for the Cardinals to draft him in 2003 but he ended up with the Baltimore Ravens where he racked up several accolades like Defensive Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and a Super Bowl ring.

When he finally hit the open market in 2019, fans were ecstatic to welcome Suggs back to Arizona and he signed a 1 year, $7 million deal to play for the Cardinals.

His tenure with the team would only last 13 games and left a bitter taste in the mouths of those who had advocated so heavily for his signing. He was released through a "mutual decision" in December 2019. He signed with Kansas City directly after that release and snagged himself another Super Bowl ring with Patrick Mahomes.

His stat line of 37 tackles and 5.5 sacks does not look bad when considering this was for a 37 year old linebacker, but his general demeanor and lack of effort soured the opinions of fans and the Suggs experiment in Arizona ended with disappointment.

Sam Bradford

With the retirement of Carson Palmer after the 2017 season, the Cardinals were at a loss at how to address the quarterback position.

They began that process by signing Sam Bradford to a 2 year, $40 million deal in March 2018. Bradford had impressed in college at Oklahoma, winning the Heisman in 2008. He then had a decent career going with the St. Louis Rams but hit a string of injuries that forever after made him an unreliable bet at the position.

When he was signed it was expected that if healthy, Bradford would be a more than competent bridge quarterback. The team drafted Josh Rosen tenth overall that same offseason but Bradford was given the first three starts of the 2018 season before being benched for the rookie in Week 4.

Just a couple of months later, Bradford was completely released and has not seen a football field since. For the low, low cost of roughly $16 million (the contract was made with injury history in mind) the Cardinals got three starts out of the former No. 1 overall pick.