Cardinals Must Address This Position Further

The Arizona Cardinals might not have had wide receiver very high on their list of needs, but as free agency gets into full swing, it appears that no significant moves are coming in that department.

On Tuesday, the Cardinals re-signed WR Zay Jones to a one-year deal worth $4.4 million. On Wednesday, they placed a tender on WR Greg Dortch, who was a Restricted Free Agent.

Dortch has been a valuable player for the Cardinals, and clearly GM Monti Ossenfort liked what he saw out of Jones in his limited action, but unless Arizona is set to acquire or draft a wide receiver, the room is simply not deep enough, even with the presence of TE Trey McBride.

While Marvin Harrison Jr. is expected to take a year-two leap, and McBride is expected to garner an immense number of receptions, the Cardinals need more than one to two options on the field at any given passing down.

While Arizona has built their offense on the run, and throwing to tight ends, a veteran wide receiver with upper end speed is something that should be added if the Cardinals want even average NFL passing numbers.

Granted, passing yards and touchdowns aren't the end-all of a successful offense. All that matters is the final score.

But looking at the passing numbers, it's hard to imagine a successful air attack with the same group of receivers.

Jones put up just 84 yards on 184 snaps, after a suspension claimed his first five games. Dortch played 432 offensive snaps, with just 342 yards in the slot. Michael Wilson had only 548 yards as the de facto WR2. The Cardinals' WR3 to WR5 options combined for less than 1,000 yards in 2024.

Harrison's 885 yards and eight touchdowns led this position group by a wide margin, and even that number has been slandered as "disappointing." That's understandable enough when McBride is eclipsing 1,000 yards with ease, but that cannot be the status quo going forward.

Whether offensive coordinator Drew Petzing wants to admit it or not, the NFL is a passing league, and one-dimensional offenses simply can't go the distance in 2025.

As excellent as RB James Conner is, and as promising as Harrison and McBride are through the air, the Cardinals need to add a legitimate secondary threat to the WR room.

It's still early in free agency, but the moves to re-sign Jones and tender Dortch seem to be pointing to a lack of engagement in the WR market.

That could be proven false at a moment's notice, but running the same group back likely won't be enough to put up respectable air numbers, unless McBride continues on his trajectory and Harrison's year-two leap puts him into the elite conversation.