This is Arizona Cardinals Most Important Position Battle

The Arizona Cardinals are no longer in a position where they're looking for players to step up and fill a role through the course of training camp and preseason.

Instead, there's now an excess of talent across multiple units. Now, the question becomes who earns the final spots and who misses out.

As far as heavy position battles are concerned, there aren't many where the starters aren't obvious.

But according to ESPN's Josh Weinfuss, the Cardinals do have at least one position battle worth keeping an eye on in the coming weeks.

Arizona Cardinals Position Battle to Watch

The competition to watch? Outside linebacker.

"Arizona committed to improving its pass rush this offseason by signing Josh Sweat and drafting Jordan Burch, adding them to a room that already included Zaven Collins, Xavier Thomas and BJ Ojulari," Weinfuss writes.

"One side of the line belongs to Sweat. The other is up for grabs and will be a fight between incumbent starter Collins and the others.

"Coach Jonathan Gannon said he ideally wants his best players on the field, and his staff will be monitoring snaps. While the rest of the outside linebackers will compete to be a starter, there could be room in certain packages and situations for everyone."

It's no secret that Collins has struggled to assert himself as the undeniable starter, but he's also been very good in certain scenarios.

Perhaps he isn't the caliber of a full-time starter, but he does bring exceptional run defense to a front seven that has struggled in that regard as a whole in recent seasons.

Ojulari's injury has prevented him from realizing his potential. Cardinals coaches seem to love him, and he has raw physical talent, but there's question as to whether or not he can put it together on Sundays.

It's hard to imagine the Cardinals giving up on Ojulari, but Collins is the one with much of a real-game resume.

In a perfect world, each of these players gets their opportunity.

But the Cardinals aren't going to prevent their third-rounder in Burch from seeing the field, so it will be a bit of a crunch to put them all together alongside Sweat, who will undeniably play as many snaps as Gannon's rotational philosophy will allow.

Regardless, the Cardinals' front seven is in a much different, much better place than it has been in recent seasons. The fact that this is a battle is already an improvement.

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