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Glendale, AZ – July 18, 2021 The long awaited press conference was held this afternoon introducing Joseph Richardson as the new owner/GM of the Arizona Cardinals. It was 3 weeks ago to the day since Richardson took over the Cardinals, and immediately put his stamp on the franchise (while causing angina within the fan base) by trading perennial Pro Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes for a haul of talent that included cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Charvarius Ward, All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill, future HOF quarterback Drew Brees and his future replacement, Tua Tagovailoa. “I think Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league at the moment, and may eventually be in the conversation as perhaps the best to have ever played the game. That said, Patrick Mahomes has been with the Cardinals ever since he entered the PAFL, and I notice we aren’t exactly tripping over championship banners. Looking through the history of this franchise, I don’t see where there is even a playoff win to point to, proving that football is not about one player, but rather a well-rounded team of good quality players.”
Richardson said he was focused this season on utilizing as much of the salary cap as possible in procuring quality players that will produce results on the field both immediately and with an eye towards the future. “COVID has wreaked havoc on all teams in all sports for the past 17 months, but it has also given us an expanded roster that permits teams to look at doing things just a bit differently than the way they were done in the past. With 6 quality guys we assigned to the taxi squad that we know can be impact players when they hopefully return healthy, and being under the cap allowed us to do something we normally wouldn’t do, and that was trade significant draft capital in order to fill gaps in our roster with quality players that teams over the cap might not normally trade, viewing the taxi squad as our "draft" for next season. Our secondary this year will boast the best cover guy in the league in Xavien Howard, who will complement the rest of our young cornerbacks. We traded our 1st and 2nd round draft picks for two good young safeties who are hopefully just at the cusp of their potential, along with a young solid middle linebacker, and look forward to a year from now pairing Curl and Blackmon with Derwin James, who has proven he can be the best in the league if he can just get healthy.”
Arizona also acquired Tyreek Hill in the trade with Carolina that moved Mahomes to the NFC East, who will join last year’s first round pick Justin Jefferson, Corey Davis and Michael Gallup, providing Drew Brees ample firepower in what will most likely be his last season. “The goal of this team will be running, gunning and scoring; to quote another Arizona voice from the past, it will be a “no risk it, no biscuit” approach. We plan to use Aaron Jones and James Conner on the ground to help keep other teams honest, but we will be playing a lot of 4 wide receiver sets, which will hopefully lead to points, which in our division will be absolutely essential.”
Coach Richardson wouldn’t elaborate about the team’s approach in the upcoming free agent draft/auction (as would be expected), but did say the team as it is currently configured will, for all intents and purposes, be the one that takes the field this upcoming season. “Obviously we have to fill in the gaps on special teams and have some other players we are targeting, but the team you see now will most likely be the team that takes the field on opening day. As far as I am concerned, this isn’t a 5 year plan or a 3 year plan; the plan is to win as much as possible as soon as possible. I can see there is a lot of quality throughout this league, but I feel we can and should be able to take the field against any team in this league and compete, which is all you can ask.”
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