Arizona Cardinals' Improved DL Not Good Enough, PFF Says

The Arizona Cardinals have spent an incredible wealth of both financial and draft resources on bolstering their weakest position group. But according to one national outlet, it's not enough to give Arizona the benefit of the doubt.

GM Monti Ossenfort opened up his checkbook early, signing edge rusher Josh Sweat and DLs Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell to bring proven veteran talent into a struggling group.

He then spent the 16th overall pick on DL Walter Nolen III, and a third-rounder on pass rusher Jordan Burch. Those players, coupled with an expected second-year jump from Darius Robinson and the hopeful return of BJ Ojulari should inspire some level of confidence that the Cardinals could have a plus front seven in 2025.

Arizona Cardinals' DL Ranked in Bottom Half of NFL by PFF

But according to PFF's Zoltan Buday, the Cardinals still sport a bottom-half defensive line. Buday ranked Arizona 20th out of 32 NFL teams.

"The Cardinals' defensive line might be the most improved unit over the past eight months — including the mid-season acquisition of edge defender Baron Browning. Arizona added edge defender Josh Sweat and interior defenders Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell in free agency and selected interior defender Walter Nolen with their first-round pick.

"The Cardinals ranked only 26th in the NFL in pressure rate without blitzing last season (28.0%), but that should improve in 2025 with the new pieces along the defensive line," Buday wrote.

It's valid to expect results before offering too much praise. Certainly, 20th is an improvement from where that bottoming group would have ranked during the 2024 season.

But these are not veteran scraps or completely unknown, unproven rookies coming in to boost Arizona's DL. Sweat has a track record of success off the edge, Campbell has been a borderline elite player even through his age-37 season, and Nolen offers nothing but upside.

Arizona may or may not see their defense morph into a top-10 group. The potential is certainly there, however. They do understandably shoulder the burden of proving they can work together as a cohesive group, and will need to produce results to justify the assets put into that group.

But the Cardinals' defense is nearly entirely unrecognizable after this offseason. While 20th is still an upgrade, it's hard to justify thinking Arizona's DL will be that far below average in the NFL.

Ultimately, that won't be known until the product takes the field, however.

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