The Arizona Cardinals are poised to cash in big time if their gamble on young talent at key position group hits in 2025

Jonathon Gannon’s Arizona Cardinals defense should be plenty encouraged by the 2024 developments that this team saw unfold. Arizona went from conceding more points (455) in 2023 than any other season in franchise history to nearly a +150 point differential swing in 2024. Arizona’s defense still didn’t measure all that impressive in a number of defensive metrics, let alone the basics — but this unit went from all-time bad on the spectrum of franchise history to a respectable unit in one offseason.

The Cardinals are primed for another leap on defense. Not only is Arizona expecting another jump in the scheme thanks to more time on task, but the Cardinals have been hurriedly busy chopping wood to add more talent to their defense for the year ahead. And the argument can be made that no one has a more improved defensive unit in the form of better personnel than Arizona’s defense from 2024 to 2025.

Some of the notable snap-takers for Arizona in 2024 that the Cardinals appear to have landed upgrades for on the defensive line alone include:

- LJ Collier - 590 snaps in 2024
- Dante Stills - 534 snaps
- Roy Lopez - 467 snaps
- Julian Okwara - 286 snaps
- Naquan Jones - 260 snaps
- Khyiris Tonga - 229 snaps
- Xavier Thomas - 208 snaps

Arizona’s on-boarding long-time veteran and former Cardinal Calais Campbell, who was sublime last year in Miami. Dalvin Tomlinson is a completely different stratosphere of player relative to Lopez, Jones and Tonga, with no disrespect intended. Arizona also drafted Walter Nolen III with their first-round draft choice this year while also getting 2024 first-round pick Darius Robinson through the offseason program without all of the hardship he personally endured last season.

On the edge, Josh Sweat is a star free agent signing who was a big part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ run to the Super Bowl. Gannon, formerly the Eagles defensive coordinator, knows him well. Sprinkle in a fully-recovered Baron Browning? The Cardinals are set to have a significantly more talented collection of players available to fill more than 2,500 defensive snaps on the line of scrimmage alone.

The veterans, like Campbell and Sweat and Tomlinson, set the floor. There’s an expectation of performance and a proof of concept for this talent that gives Arizona a very strong foundation up front. Given how long the interior defenders have been at it at the NFL level and Sweat’s familiarity with the scheme, Gannon and his staff should know exactly what to expect from that group.

The youngsters, including Robinson, Nolen III and 2025 third-round draft choice Jordan Burch, will set the ceiling. If that trio becomes impactful players for Arizona in 2025, the team will have not only upgraded the front-line players but found wave after wave of impact on the line of scrimmage. 

For as good as Tomlinson and Campbell have been, Campbell will be 39-years old in September and should be considered a high-rotation presence. He’s played more than 617 snaps once since 2019. And Tomlinson has always been a rotational presence who has played between 550 to 650 snaps in any given season.

There’s hence why the younger talents with marquee investments hold the key. The cherry on top is the nucleus of players still present who were snap takers last year. Those 2024 reps will come in very handy for potentially a third-line rotational piece versus holding serve as the primary answer at the position.

With a secondary that was already the strength of the unit returning most key snap takers and adding Will Johnson with a top-50 draft selection, the sky could be the limit. But it will be the likes of Robinson, Nolen III, and Burch who take the Cardinals there, if they reach it.