Final Arizona Cardinals 53-Man Roster Projection

The dust is settling on the Arizona Cardinals' preseason, and head coach Mike LaFleur knows there's plenty of work to do.

"You went into it saying if it were to end before this game, here's our 53 and is there anything that some of these guys can to do maybe jump into that conversation," he told reporters after Friday night's loss in Green Bay.

"We'll watch the tape and have those on the plane."

In roughly 24 hours, the Cardinals — along with all other 31 NFL teams — will cut their roster down to 53 players by Sunday at 3:00 PM AZ time.

Here's our final projections:

QB (3): Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, Carson Beck

Unless a team can swoop in for a last-second trade for Minshew, the Cardinals will be rolling with three active quarterbacks on their roster. That might not be the case by the end of the season.

RB (4): Jeremiyah Love, Tyler Allgeier, Bam Knight, James Conner*

Welcome to one of the team's biggest question marks, as the first three running backs are essentially set in stone while Conner's health will determine if he remains on the active roster or if the Cardinals place him on injured reserve to begin the season.

WR (6): Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Kendrick Bourne, Devin Duvernay, Reggie Virgil, Jalen Brooks

This is an awfully tough decision, as the Cardinals are sure to keep at least five wideouts on the roster with a sixth potentially looming. Brooks may have put the cherry on top of his spot with another strong outing vs. Green Bay.

TE (4): Trey McBride, Elijah Higgins, Teagan Quitoriano, Tip Reiman*

Copy and paste from the running back room, as the first three tight ends here are pretty comfortably set while Reiman's health will dictate his status of landing here or on injured reserve. Once upon a time he was expected to be ready for training camp — now he might not be ready for Week 1.

OL (9): Paris Johnson Jr., Isaac Seumalo, Hjalte Froholdt, Isaiah Adams, Elijah Wilkinson, Jon Gaines, Josh Fryar, Jayden Williams, Hayden Conner

The heftiest (both in terms of literal size and number of players) belongs to the offensive line with nine total players: The typical starting five and two different backups for the interior and exterior, respectively.

DL (6): Walter Nolen III, Darius Robinson, Roy Lopez, Andrew Billings, L.J. Collier, Dante Stills

Typically the Cardinals might carry one more body, though the drop-off in talent from this group and anybody else left out feels pretty steep.

OLB (5): Josh Sweat, Baron Browning, Zaven Collins, Jordan Burch, Eku Leota

Arguably the biggest name left off the roster comes here in BJ Ojulari, who did manage 1.5 sacks last night in Green Bay. Was it enough to rescue his spot? Leota looked equally as impressive and his overall body of work this preseason was stronger.

ILB (4): Mack Wilson Sr., Cody Simon, Jack Gibbens, Karson Sharar

Conceivably a fifth ILB could be kept here with special teams in mind, though in terms of playing time it's an awfully top-heavy room with little wiggle room to spare. Sharar beats out Owen Pappoe with youth and potential on his side.

CB (5): Garrett Williams, Will Johnson, Denzel Burke, Max Melton, Sean Murphy-Bunting

It's entirely possible the Cardinals could opt for six cornerbacks here, and it's quite the race for the final spot regardless of how many Arizona chooses to keep. All of Starling Thomas, Kei'Trel Clark and Elijah Jones played deep in the Cardinals' preseason finale.

S (4): Budda Baker, Andrew Wingard, Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Kitan Crawford

Similar to the defensive line room, this group of four safeties is simply a step above from the rest of the depth chart. Fourth-stringer Kitan Crawford has earned some awfully high praise over camp.

Specialist (3): Chad Ryland, Blake Gillikin, Casey Kreiter

Status quo here.