The 2025 NFL season could be considered a make or break campaign for head coach Jonathan Gannon, polarizing starting quarterback Kyler Murray and the rest of the Arizona Cardinals. Unfortunately, the month of August still hasn’t arrived and the Cardinals have already had a couple of troubling encounters with that dastardly injury bug.
The latest casualty is cornerback Starling Thomas, a 25-year-old UAB product who has started 22 games over the last two seasons, the most among any undrafted players in the NFL. Thomas went down with a knee injury during practice on Friday July 25, and just two days later, the Cards’ worst fears were confirmed when an MRI revealed Thomas had suffered an ACL tear.
Thomas showed signs of promise in 2024 following a rough rookie season. He allowed just 30 receptions for 396 yards and two touchdowns on 51 targets, and was Arizona’s highest-graded outside cornerback during the 2024 season, according to Pro Football Focus. Thomas also played 820 snaps, the most of any outside corner on Arizona’s roster last year.
Youthful Cardinals Secondary Needs to Step Up
Now with Starling Thomas joining Sean Murphy-Bunting as members of the Cardinals’ cornerback room who will be out for the entire season, Arizona’s defense will only go as far as a number of young and mostly untested pieces can take it.
2025 2nd Round pick Will Johnson and 2024 2nd Round pick Max Melton will be the likely starters at outside corner. 2023 3rd Round selection Garrett Williams will be starting at nickel. Outside of those top three, there’s 2025 5th-rounder Denzel Burke and 2024 3rd-rounder Elijah Jones who will be expected to to provide the Cards secondary with rotational depth.
Is that a secondary fit for a team that expects to make a run at an NFC West divisional title? On paper, at least until we know that either Max Melton is ready to make a huge second-year leap or that Will Johnson can walk into the NFL and excel right away, it doesn’t look promising.
The Pressure Is On For Jonathan Gannon
Before training camp began, Jonathan Gannon stressed that he was taking things one day at a time as he came up on his third season as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Gannon can preach “the process” all he wants, but the Cardinals have a history of keeping head coaches on a short leash, and the former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire since taking over in Arizona.
Gannon has won just 12 of his first 34 games as an NFL head coach, but things did seem to be trending in the right direction last year. The Cards finished 8-9, were 6-4 heading into their bye week, and had a +21 point differential for the season. There was a version of the 2024 season where Arizona returned to the Playoffs.
There’s also a version of the 2025 NFL season where Arizona actually wins the NFC West division. But again, a lot will be on the shoulders of a young secondary and an enigmatic quarterback, and that could prove to be a problem.
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