Help wanted: Cards GM Keim actively seeking wide receivers

For the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday’s 31-21 loss to the Houston Texans had a lot of recurring themes.

The Cardinals struggled to run the football, gaining only 48 yards on 18 attempts.

Their defense had a tough time getting off the field on third downs; Houston converted 8-of-15 to keep drives moving.

And again, receivers not named Larry Fitzgerald had a really hard time catching the football. John Brown, Jaron Brown, J.J. Nelson and Brittan Golden saw a total of 13 throws come their way. Those targets yielded only five catches for 54 yards. There were several drops and errors when they were thrown to.

The issue led head coach Bruce Arians to vent his frustration Sunday.

“We’ll be looking at some different receivers next week,” he said.

Now, it’s up to general manager Steve Keim to find some options that can help Arizona’s struggling receiving corps with six games left in the season.

“We’ve been looking at wide receivers in a lot of different scenarios,” Keim told Doug & Wolf Monday on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station. “Whether it’s guys on practice squads that we could potentially poach or guys that are off the street.

“Either way, we have to try to do the best we can to put some players on the field that are going to make the plays when given an opportunity.”

In the fourth quarter Sunday, the Cardinals faced a 2nd-and-6 from their own 30-yard line. Gabbert threw a perfect sideline pass to J.J. Nelson that would have gained 15 yards, but instead, it bounced off the receiver’s chest, bringing up a third down. On third down, Gabbert connected with John Brown, but the receiver cut his route from the slot short of the line to gain, which brought up a 4th-and-1.

Arians decided to go for it, even though the Cardinals only trailed by three and there was over six minutes remaining. Adrian Peterson’s run lost a yard and Arizona turned it over on downs. Houston scored on the next play to ice the game.

Keim pointed to a group of new players — Gabbert, safety Budda Baker and tight end Ricky Seals-Jones — playing well, but also wondered why receivers that have been relied on in the past haven’t delivered with any regularity in 2017.

“We have some other receivers that have done a lot of things for us in the past, and for one reason or another, those guys aren’t stepping up and answering the bell,” Keim said. “That’s what’s disappointing to me and we’ll continue to try and put the best players out there that we can.”

The Cardinals return home to host the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium.

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