Christian Wilkins Named Top Target for Cardinals
ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals have plenty of holes to fill heading into 2024, and one free agent defensive lineman could make a major impact upon addition.
Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins is set to hit the open market this offseason after spending the first five years of his career with the organization.
Wilkins, a first-round pick in 2019, has played every game for Miami the last three seasons and has accrued 355 tackles in his career thus far. His nine sacks in 2023 would have led the Cardinals this past season.
Arizona's defense struggled last year after losing some notable names, and there's hope the Cardinals can put some of their hefty cap space to good use in the coming months.
Bleacher Report recently went through and evaluated each team's pending offseason - marking Wilkins as Arizona's top free agent priority:
"When J.J. Watt retired and Zach Allen signed with the Broncos, the Cardinals lost their two starting defensive tackles last offseason. They didn't replace either of them in free agency nor with a high pick in the draft, and their defense suffered as a result. Also, Carlos Watkins, Kevin Strong, L.J. Collier and Leki Fotu are unrestricted free agents," wrote Matt Holder.
"Wilkins will be one of the best defensive linemen available on the open market, as he's a well-rounded player with good grades from Pro Football Focus as a run defender and pass-rusher. The five-year pro just turned 28 in December, so he'd be part of the youth movement in Arizona as well."
The Cardinals are coming off a season where they allowed the second-most points in the league at 26.8 per game. Their allowed third-down conversion rate of 47.3% was bottom of the table while Arizona also struggled to stop the run with a league-worst 143.2 yards allowed per game on the ground.
Could Wilkins fix that?
Wilkins ranked 15th out of all defensive interior players in run defense according to Pro Football Focus' metrics and graded out as the 23rd best overall player at his position.
The addition could come at a heavy cost, according to Spotrac - who has Wilkins' market value set at $20.2 million per year.
The Cardinals are projected in the ballpark of $60 million in cap space for 2024, so they could spend the pennies if they desired.
