Cardinals’ addition of Jordan Phillips earns little praise in ESPN, PFF grades

The Arizona Cardinals are said to have agreed to a deal with formers Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, bolstering a position that lacked depth in 2019.

Some unforeseen circumstances didn’t help that. The Cardinals cut Robert Nkemdiche last summer after the former first-round pick was not in shape. Darius Philon was released after getting arrested and being charged with aggravated assault.

Phillips, formerly of the Dolphins and Bills, gives the Cardinals a likely new starter at the position for a deal reportedly worth $30 million for three years.

But ESPN’s Bill Barnwell gave the Cardinals a “C” for the pact.

Yet another player signing a three-year, $30 million pact, Phillips racked up 9.5 sacks in a breakout season in Buffalo. Neither the tape nor the numbers suggest that Phillips is likely to repeat that total; he finished the season with 16 knockdowns and a pass rush win rate of 10.1%, which ranked 71st in the league. ESPN’s automated analysis suggests that Phillips created only five sacks, all for himself.

Even with pass-rushing star Chandler Jones racking up 19 sacks last season, the Cardinals ranked only 17th in the NFL in that stat as a team (Phillips’ Bills were 12th).

Time will tell if Vance Joseph gets more pass-rushing from that group as Phillips joins a Cardinals D-line that also includes Corey Peters, Zach Allen and Michael Dogbe.

Even a fallback season for Phillips would help the Cardinals, who didn’t get much of a pass rush from their defensive line in 2019 after Darius Philon was cut before the season. The only D-lineman who popped occasionally was Rodney Gunter, who is now a free agent. Outside linebacker Chandler Jones continues to play at a high level, but the Cardinals badly need an interior disruptor to help draw attention away from the former Patriots standout. Phillips is coming in to play that role, but I’m skeptical that he’ll hit that 9.5-sack total again.

The only so-so grade of the Cardinals’ free agent pickup was echoed by Pro Football Focus’ Ben Linsey, who didn’t give a letter grade but simply expressed concerns:

Don’t chase the sack numbers. It is really just that simple. Yes, Phillips may have hit the double-digit sack threshold, but you don’t want to base a contract off 10 plays in a season in which a player played over 500 snaps. The truth is that Phillips was a below average pass rusher in 2019, earning a pass-rushing grade of just 60.5 on the year. That is not outside of the normal range of events for him, either. In five NFL seasons, he has yet to record a 60.0 overall grade. It appears as if the Cardinals have fallen victim to chasing the sacks here, and it’s unlikely to pay off for them.

Linsey’s assumption that the Cardinals simply chased after one stat is just that: an assumption. It’s possible that the Cardinals’ talent evaluation process values different things than PFF’s grading algorithm does, but there seems to be a small-sample-size consensus that Arizona’s move for Phillips was just OK.

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