Cardinals’ Sean Murphy-Bunting is back in familiar territory

The Arizona Cardinals entered the offseason knowing they need a fill-in for nickel cornerback Garrett Williams as he rehabs from a torn Achilles suffered late last year.

Sean Murphy-Bunting figures to be that solution.

Since offseason work got underway in Tempe, the veteran has been a fixture with the safeties group as he returns to a role he knows all too well.

“For me, that’s kind of where I started my career I guess I would say,” Murphy-Bunting told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Wednesday. “I had opportunities bouncing back and forth from inside to outside and outside to inside, but I think I’ve had most of my success, or most of my playmaking I guess, from the inside.

“It just gives me an opportunity to be around the ball and utilizing my brain where I kind of play to the scheme but also play to my abilities and do whatever the team needs me to do in that regard.”

He’s not lying. Murphy-Bunting’s first two seasons as a pro were some of his best with him operating more inside than out with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

That stretch included Murphy-Bunting’s impressive postseason run where he totaled three interceptions and five passes defensed on the way to a Super Bowl victory in 2020. He also added three picks and eight passes defensed as a rookie.

But after Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl run, Murphy-Bunting went from prominently inside to mainly outside through the rest of his tenure with the Buccaneers, his one-year stint in 2023 with the Tennessee Titans and 2024 with the Cardinals. He didn’t play in 2025 due to injury.

And while he’s found some success out wide — recording at least two picks and five passes defensed since 2023 — Murphy-Bunting moving back inside gives Arizona a legit replacement option for Williams and provides the cornerback an opportunity to see the field in a role he knows all too well in a contract year.

“We just felt like that was best for where our roster is at right now,” defensive coordinator Nick Rallis said during the final round of organized team activities. “It’s something that he did back in Tampa as well. So, we knew he had the ability to do it.

“We just had to kind of get him back into that mode, because it had been several years in a row, he’d been out there at corner only. He’s very natural inside, so he can play both those spots.”

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