Cardinals defensive starter's season ends before it begins

Murphy-Bunting began his career with the Buccaneers, and he made 36 starts during his time in Tampa Bay (though only five of those came during his final year with the team). That spell was followed by a one-year Titans pact, and the former second-rounder returned to full-time starting duties. His Tennessee performance resulted in a much stronger free-agent market.

The Cardinals inked Murphy-Bunting to a three-year, $22.5M deal last March. $17.39M of that figure consisted of guarantees, including the entirety of the 27-year-old’s 2025 base salary ($7.7M). This news will leave Arizona without a first-team option at the cornerback spot after Murphy-Bunting started all 15 of his appearances last year. He notched three interceptions and a pair of forced fumbles along the way, and the Cardinals will be tasked with replacing that production this season.

Arizona has finished mid-pack against the pass over each of the two years with Jonathan Gannon in place as head coach and Nick Rallis as defensive coordinator. Murphy-Bunting delivered positives and negatives in terms of coverage in 2024; the Central Michigan product allowed a passer rating of 84.1 as the nearest defender (the second-lowest of his career) but also surrendered a 70.7% completion percentage (the second-highest of his career). His attention will now turn to recovery in advance of the 2026 season, in which none of his base salary is guaranteed.

The Cardinals have made a number of draft investments at the cornerback spot in recent years. That includes Garrett Williams in the third round in 2023; after seeing his snap share jump to 76% last season, another notable workload can be expected for the Syracuse product. Arizona then added Max Melton and Elijah Jones on Day 2 of last year’s draft, and the team double-dipped once again (Will Johnson, Denzel Burke) in April.

A number of options will therefore be in place for the Cardinals as they look to replace Murphy-Bunting internally. Taking another step forward and reaching the postseason in Year 3 of the regime led by Gannon and general manager Monti Ossenfort will require further improvement on defense (and other areas), though, and this news represents a blow. If Arizona seeks an outside addition at the CB spot, one will certainly be feasible given the team’s $32M in cap space.