Cardinals Safety Named Cut Candidate

The Arizona Cardinals move into the 2025 offseason with good reason for optimism.

After doubling their win total from 2023, the Cardinals walk into this pivotal stretch of months with some of the league's highest cap space on top of five picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, which includes the 16th overall selection.

There's ample room to improve the roster, though OverTheCap believes Arizona could cut weight with one of their starters.

Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson enters the final year of his contract, and there's a few signs that could point to his potential departure.

Thompson will likely command a similar figure to his $12 million annual salary in his next deal - and after Arizona just made Budda Baker one of the highest-paid players at the position - many believe the Cardinals aren't willing to sink more significant money into their safety tandem.

The presence of rookie safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson also looms. "Rabbit" started in place of Thompson when he was hurt and played well - which may entice the Cardinals to turn to the Texas Tech product sooner rather than later.

OverTheCap has Thompson listed as the Cardinals' cap casualty candidate based on the following criteria:

• Due at least $3.75 million in cash (Thompson is due $9.7 million)
• Have a negative contract fate (explanation can be found here) more than 50% - Thompson is at 75.4%
• Within the top 100 players of worst contract valuation above median starter (Thompson is nearly a million over)

Cap space is not a problem for the Cardinals, as they're fourth in the NFL with $71.6 million in overall cap ($68 million in effective cap space) with 58 players already accounted for on the roster.

According to OTC, cutting Thompson pre-June 1 would save Arizona $6.5 million against the salary cap.

Is that figure worth losing Thompson?

Despite not getting national recognition, Thompson is still an above-quality starter at the position - though his $13.7 million cap number for 2025 ranks seventh for NFL safeties.

We'll see if the Cardinals are even mulling over the possibility of parting with Thompson as free agency is set to begin in March.