NFL.com: OT Daryl Williams is a good free-agent fit for Cardinals
Feb 22, 2019, 4:22 PM | Updated: 7:34 pm
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
The Cardinals have already started to fill some of the holes on their roster going into next season, but perhaps no bigger holes still exist than the ones on the offensive line.
The team suffered numerous injuries to that unit in 2018, which resulted in them giving up 52 sacks on the season. This was tied for fifth in all of football.
It is clear that the Cardinals need to make some type of changes in that regard, and according to NFL.com’s Marc Sessler, signing free agent offensive tackle Daryl Williams could be a great first step for them.
Have the Cardinals entirely dismissed trading Josh Rosen to draft Kyler Murray? I don’t think so. Team brass stomped on that narrative — they doth protest too much! — but whoever plays quarterback is beyond doomed until this leaky line is fixed. Williams comes with questions after missing all but 56 snaps of last season with a knee injury. His stellar play in 2017, though, makes him a candidate to earn starting cash in 2019.
Williams spent the first four seasons of his career with the Panthers after being taken in the fourth round in 2015 out of Oklahoma. As Sessler mentioned, though, the 26-year-old missed virtually all of last season after tearing his MCL and dislocating his patella in the preseason.
Williams had been considered one of the best offensive tackles in football prior to this injury, however. He started all 16 games for the Panthers in 2017 and was named a second-team All Pro for his efforts.
It is by no means a guarantee, but if Williams can get back to his 2017 form, he would be a great buy-low candidate that the Cardinals could possibly take a flyer on.