Organized team activities are, both in time and spirit, a long way from Week 1. Players mostly cycle through brief drills, dressed in practice jerseys and shorts. Pads remain stored away for months to come. The Tempe air burns hot, with State Farm Stadium sitting empty across the Valley.
But there’s one position group this month that has made you cock an eyebrow and think, “Huh, that’s interesting.”
At cornerback, the Cardinals began OTAs with what looked, on the surface, like a jumbled mix of players. They finished the past three weeks with a much clearer hierarchy.
Will Johnson appears to have one starting spot locked down, as he enters his second season. Across from him, Denzel Burke and Max Melton look to be in competition for the second starting spot.
The latter comes as something of a surprise, given the difficulties Melton endured late last season. The 2024 second-round pick started just one game after the Cardinals’ Week 8 bye, dealing with a heel injury and on-field struggles that pushed him down the depth chart.
But in speaking with reporters on Thursday, June 4, defensive coordinator Nick Rallis saved his highest praise for Melton.
“The biggest thing with him is just understanding the stress and the strength of each call,” Rallis said. “And knowing, ‘Where do I have to win on this and where can I take a risk?’
“I’ve seen a huge growth in terms of deep understanding of when calls are gonna be called and what they’re really doing.”
The third member of that competition for snaps across from Johnson could be Starling Thomas V. He missed all of last season with a torn ACL suffered in training camp, but has been on the side of the field working with trainers for much of OTAs, suggesting that a return may be near.
The most notable element of the cornerbacks room, though, has been Sean Murphy-Bunting’s new role. With Garrett Williams recovering from a torn Achilles, the Cardinals have shifted Murphy-Bunting to nickel, meaning that he spends his practice sessions training with the safeties.
Murphy-Bunting, who also missed all of last season with a torn ACL, was primarily a nickel early in his career but has played almost exclusively as an outside cornerback since 2022.
After Williams’ injury, Rallis knew that the Cardinals would need to shift one of their outside cornerbacks to the inside — a role in which he prioritizes on-field intelligence.
“You have to be able to process very fast inside,” Rallis said. “Just because things pass off a little bit quicker in there. But also, you’re a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage, and you’re just gonna be involved in a lot of coverage tools. It is not easy.”
Cardinals cut kicker
The Cardinals released kicker Joshua Karty on June 4, meaning that Chad Ryland has won the competition for that job — for now.
Ryland struggled late last season, making just 10 of 16 field goal attempts after the bye week, as he developed a consistent miss to the right. To address that issue, the Cardinals focused on finishing through the ball with Ryland, rather than falling away from his kicks at the point of contact.
“When he finishes downfield, that ball goes straight, on line through the target,” special teams coach Michael Ghobrial said. “So that has been a point of emphasis for him.”
So far, Ghobrial said, the results have been encouraging.
Rookie offensive lineman finding footing
The Cardinals have brought their rookies along slowly during OTAs, generally leaving veterans higher on the presumptive depth chart, based on the order of reps in practice. That’s created a mild surprise at right guard, with Isaiah Adams working ahead of second-round pick Chase Bisontis.
“They have to learn a new system, new techniques, new calls, new guys around them,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “There’s a ton of new for them. And there’s growing pains. … So for (Bisontis), it’s just about the reps, it’s about the experience and just making the system his own.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why the Arizona Cardinals are reworking cornerbacks room
