These Cardinals Rookies Could Win Starting Jobs

Luckily for the Arizona Cardinals, they no longer find themselves in a position to ask too much out of their rookies. Unlike years prior, not one of Arizona's seven rookies were brought in with hope that they can save their position group or unit.

But GM Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon still refuse to shy away from giving their younger players significant action. Considering Gannon's heavy rotational philosophy, these Cardinals could find themselves in a starting role sooner rather than later:

1: CB Will Johnson

Johnson is a day one draft pick if his knee didn't have some concern. The Cardinals were more than satisfied with the DB's medicals, and selected him with the 47th overall pick — an incredible value for a prospect of Johnson's caliber.

Johnson isn't the type of player who needs to develop into a future contributor. Sure, it might take some time for him to adapt to NFL game speed, but he played five years of college football in a Big 10 conference that featured some of the better pass-catching talent.

Johnson is smooth, refined and not too handsy, but with enough ball-hawking skill to create takeaways. The Cardinals have a young secondary, but Johnson seems likely to slot in to an immediate starting outside corner role, barring an injury flare-up or a poor camp, both of which seem unlikely.

2: LB Cody Simon

The Cardinals might have faith in Akeem Davis-Gaither, but expecting the former Bengal to pan out in a similar fashion to Mack Wilson Sr. would be Ossenfort counting on lightning to jump into the bottle for him. It's possible, but Arizona needed its field general LB of the future, and Ohio State standout Cody Simon can immediately fill that role.

It's easy to discredit volume stats, but it's impossible to ignore just how good Simon was across-the-board at Ohio State. 112 tackles, seven sacks, seven passes defended and elite PFF grades across the board.

He is also a very refined prospect with plenty of playing experience, and it's hard to imagine the rookie not leapfrogging some of his competition mid-season, if not sooner than that.

3: EDGE Jordan Burch

Arizona's interior DL has become quite crowded, so when it comes to truly winning a starting gig, it might be difficult for first-rounder Walter Nolen III to stand out over names like Dalvin Tomlinson, Calais Campbell and Darius Robinson though Nolen should have a large role carved out, and might have the highest ceiling of all involved.

But on the edge, the Cardinals only added one true contributor in free agency. Josh Sweat is a lock to start, but the opposite slot is up for grabs, and former Oregon pass rusher Jordan Burch has the raw talent to make it happen.

Realistically, Burch only needs to showcase more juice than Baron Browning and Zaven Collins. With no disrespect to those players, that isn't the most difficult challenge in the world. Burch may have been a third-rounder, but he's got an exceptionally high motor to pair with decent size.

Burch brings significantly more size than the likes of Browning or third-year OLB BJ Ojulari, and has more speed and athleticism than Collins. Couple that with the fact that he can kick inside, and it seems likely that Gannon's rotation could favor bBurch over some of the incumbents.