Khyiris Tonga

Cardinals Rumors: Brown, Moore, Humphries

By Rory Parks | at March 24, 2024 10:09 am

The Cardinals are open to trading the No. 4 overall pick in next month’s draft, a move which would net them additional high-end draft capital while still allowing them to select one of the best wide receivers in a class full of receiving talent. And given that Arizona has parted ways with Marquise Brown and Rondale Moore this offseason, the club’s need for multiple pass catchers to support quarterback Kyler Murray is particularly glaring.

Here’s the latest from the desert, starting with a couple of notes on those recently-departed wideouts:

• Brown ultimately signed a one-year, $7MM contract with the Chiefs, a deal that includes an additional $4MM in incentives. “Hollywood” had previously expressed interest in re-signing with the Cardinals, and Mike Jurecki of Arizona Football Daily confirms that Brown indeed hoped to return to Arizona even as he was garnering league-wide interest. However, the Cardinals never attempted to match or better KC’s offer, so the speedy wideout will work alongside Patrick Mahomes & Co. as he eyes a lucrative multiyear pact in 2025.
• Moore, meanwhile, was traded to the Falcons, and he will apparently welcome the change of scenery that the Kirk Cousins-led outfit will provide. Despite working with two different play-callers over his first three professional seasons, Moore felt he was not given enough opportunities in the vertical passing game and ran too many horizontal routes, as ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss details. Moore will also be eligible for free agency in 2025, and while there are a number of talented skill position players on Atlanta’s roster, the soon-to-be 24-year-old could become a key ancillary target in a high-upside offense.
• Even if the Cardinals select a top-tier WR prospect like Marvin Harrison Jr.  or Malik Nabers, the club could certainly add another receiver or two later on in the draft, especially given their need at the position and the strength of this year’s class. To that end, as Jurecki notes, the team recently scheduled a “30” visit with Texas WR Xavier Worthy, who set a Scouting Combine record with a 4.21-second 40-yard dash and whom NFL.com draft guru Daniel Jeremiah referred to as a taller version of Brown. The Colts also have a visit scheduled with Worthy.
• Earlier this month, the Cardinals released OT D.J. Humphries, who had spent his entire career with the club since being selected in the first round of the 2015 draft. Financially, the release was an easy call for GM Monti Ossenfort, as Humphries tore his ACL at the end of the 2023 campaign and is therefore uncertain to play in 2024, when he was due to carry a $22MM cap charge. Emotionally, however, Ossenfort called the move “brutal,” saying, “the salary cap and the way things are set up and the way contracts work, it put us in a very tough situation. I can’t say enough about how I feel about D.J. as a football player and moreso as a person. His energy, and the leadership he brought to this team, we are certainly going to miss him. I hope nothing but the best for him in his recovery and his rehab” (via Darren Urban of the team’s official website).
• The Cardinals added Jonah Williams in free agency this year and drafted Paris Johnson with the No. 6 overall pick in last year’s draft, and they are still rostering veteran Kelvin Beachum. Nonetheless, Ossenfort left to the door open to a Humphries reunion once Humphries’ rehab is complete.
• Ossenfort has been busy fortifying his defensive line this offseason, adding Bilal Nichols, Justin Jones, and Khyiris Tonga in free agency. Nichols and Jones landed notable multiyear deals, while Tonga signed a one-year, $1.75MM accord, per CardsWire’s Howard Balzer. Still, Ossenfort thinks highly of Tonga and cited his size and the strength of his performance near the end of his tenure with the Vikings as reasons for his belief that the former seventh-round pick could carve out a meaningful role in the desert.