Losing Marqui Christian on waivers a rare personnel misstep by Cardinals

Marqui Christian might turn out to be nothing.

He didn’t dress for any of the Arizona Cardinals’ first three games of 2016. But the fact is, he was good enough to make the 53-man roster for a team picked by many as the favorite to win Super Bowl LI.

When the Los Angeles Rams play the Cardinals Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium, Christian will be on the other sideline. The fifth-round pick out of Midwestern State was claimed off waivers by the Rams Wednesday.

Christian was exposed to the waiver process because of a roster issue at punter, of all positions.

Drew Butler, the Cardinals’ punter, had suffered two ankle injuries in the first three weeks of the season. He was unable to punt in Arizona’s 33-18 loss to the Buffalo Bills last Sunday, and won’t be able to perform the duty for a while. But because of his ability to hold on field goals and extra points, he’ll still be called on to do that.

That’s right — after signing Ryan Quigley to handle the punting duties, the Cardinals will dress two punters on game day for the time being. One could certainly understand the move if Butler was an All-Pro in punting or had proven himself completely indispensable with his holding. He isn’t and he hasn’t.

Since 2014, when Butler joined the Cardinals, 36 players in the league have had more than 50 punts. Butler ranks 34th among them in yards per punt at 42.26. This season, Butler’s net punting average is 33.7, which ranks 32nd among the 33 players that have attempted a punt this season. The only player lower on the rankings is his teammate, Chandler Catanzaro, who had to punt twice against the Bills due to Butler’s injury.

Granted, the Cardinals’ punt coverage team hasn’t been good — they are the fourth-worst in the NFL in that category, allowing 100 yards on nine returns.

So maybe Butler is too valuable as a holder? You can certainly understand the idea of wanting to keep your placekicker happy and one way to do that is to employ continuity in the holder position.

But let’s go back to the Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots that came down to a missed 47-yard field goal attempt by Catanzaro. Rookie long snapper Kameron Canaday, playing in his first NFL game, delivered a bit of a low snap to Butler on the play. But the ball never hit the ground — not until Butler dropped it, that is. He did an admirable job of recovering to get the ball down, but the hiccup was enough to throw off Catanzaro’s timing and he pushed it wide-left. Ball game.

Canaday was saddled with the lion’s share of the blame, and after a truly wild snap that led to a Buffalo touchdown last Sunday, he was released. Veteran Aaron Brewer was signed to take over the snapping duties Wednesday.

Butler’s job security has been a mystery to a lot of Cardinals fans, especially following a playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers to end the 2014 season. He averaged 36.8 yards per punt that day, when field position was at a premium in a matchup of two challenged offenses. Butler’s first two punts that day, each from inside Arizona’s own 30-yard-line, traveled 28 yards or less. Blessed with great field position, the Panthers scored on each possession to build a 10-0 lead they never relinquished.

Back to Christian. As recently as Tuesday night, Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said he was hoping the safety would pass through waivers and Arizona could bring him back, presumably to the practice squad. Of course, that didn’t happen. The Rams pounced, fueled either by a genuine interest in Christian or head coach Jeff Fisher’s noted trolling tendencies. Who knows? Maybe the Rams pump Christian for information leading up to Sunday’s game and then cut him following it?

Again, he’s a fifth-round pick from a small school and could turn out to be nothing more than a footnote.

But the Cardinals were very high on Christian right after choosing him last April. Vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough had great things to say about him in an interview with Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM in early May.

“Marqui Christian, Midwestern State. Remember that name,” he said.

Unfortunately, it looks like that’s all fans will be able to remember him by is his name. As in “remember when the Cardinals lost Marqui Christian to protect a holder?”

General manager Steve Keim’s track record in the personnel department — whether in the draft, free agency or trades — has been very strong. Let’s hope this curious move doesn’t come back to bite him and the team.

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