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Cardinals 2024 position breakdown: Defensive backs
Throughout training camp, PHNX Sports will provide an overview of each of the Cardinals position groups with a look at the likely starters, the challengers and players who could provide depth.
To view past position breakdowns, follow these links (more links will be added after those stories are published):
- Offensive line
- Defensive line
- Running backs
- Linebackers
- Quarterbacks
- Wide receivers/tight ends
Projected starters: CBs: Sean Murphy-Bunting, Max Melton, Garett Williams (nickel). Safeties: Budda Baker, Jalen Thompson.
The Cardinals signed Sean Murphy-Bunting to a three-year, $22.5 million contract of which $14.195 million is fully guaranteed. There is no question that he will be CB1 when the season begins. It’s a role for which he has been waiting.
Murphy-Bunting, 27, is a 2019 second-round pick (No. 39) who won a Super Bowl with the Bucs and former Cardinals coach Bruce Arians. He played 14 games for the Titans last season, posting 57 tackles, two interceptions, eight passes defensed and two forced fumbles. Per Pro Football Focus, he graded out at a career-high in run defense (graded 69.3) but had a career-low grade in coverage (54.4).
The Cardinals selected Rutgers’ Max Melton in the second round (No. 43) of this year’s draft. When you select a cornerback that high, it normally carries expectations that he will have an immediate impact, but Melton will still have to prove it in the preseason. Working in the Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection’s favor is that the Cardinals aren’t exactly flush with experienced and talented options at the position. He has the inside track to the starter’s job.
Garrett Williams, who missed all of 2023 training camp and about half the season after tearing his ACL in Syracuse’s game against North Carolina State on Oct. 15., is expected to be the Cardinals’ nickel back. The Cardinals selected him in the third round last year (No. 72) and he played nine games, taking the majority of the snaps in most of them.
“When you’re playing on the inside, I feel like you have to have a much better idea of the big picture of what’s going on around you,” Williams said. “You have to be [accountable] in the run game and the pass game. You have to have a little more of a reaction, instinct feel to it. Obviously, you do, too, at corner, but when you’re in the run game everything happens a lot faster when you’re a lot closer to the ball.”
Safety Budda Baker is in the final year of his contract and is due $14.2 million in salary with no guarantees. Last offseason, he wanted a contract extension and then requested a trade when he didn’t get it. The team finally gave him a bonus and guaranteed his salary.
It’s still possible that the two sides could reach an agreement before the season starts on a short-term deal, but Baker, 28, may have to earn a new deal with elite play this season. The Cardinals already have a productive Jalen Thompson under contract as insurance and they drafted Dadrion Taylor-Demerson.
Thompson is one of those guys who quietly goes about his business, but does it effectively, as the prior comparison shows. Thompson is entering his sixth season with the Cardinals after being selected in the fifth round of the 2019 supplemental draft out of Baker’s archrival, Washington State. Thompson was third on the team with 78 total tackles (five for loss), but led the Cards 59 with solos. He also led the team with four interceptions (for 49 yards); the only Cardinals player with more than one.
Potential backups: CBs: Elijah Jones, Starling Thomas V, Kei’Trel Clark. Safeties: Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Andre Chachere.
The Cardinals clearly saw a lot in Jones to select him in the third round (No. 90) this year. Jones, told azcardinals.com that defensive coordinator Nick Rallis’ defense is similar to the scheme he played at Boston College.
“It’s a pretty smooth [transition] over, having that simple transition and a lot of overlap, even with certain things schematically that we ran verbatim in college,” he said. “It’s nice to not have a crazy learning curve and I feel like the easier it is to learn things, the faster you could play.”
Starling Thomas V, a waiver claim last season, has shown significant progress in the system, and Clark’s sure-handed tackling also makes him a candidate for snaps. Both have played well thus far in training camp.
Cardinals’ safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson has a name worth remembering, even if it’s not the moniker most people use for him.
“I’ve never met anyone with the name Dadrion before,” he said during OTAs, before admitting that most people call him rabbit, a name that stuck with him because of his success in keep-away games as a kid in Oklahoma City.
“We have rabbits out from where I’m from and the coach was like, ‘You’re running around like one of them dang bunny rabbits,'” Taylor-Demerson said. “(The nickname) was ‘Bunny Rabbit,’ then over the years it transitioned to ‘Rabbit.’
“I introduce myself in traditional settings as Dadrion. But if I see you again or if I feel like the setting is right, I’ll introduce myself as Rab or Rabbit. Depends on the setting I’m in, because to this guy, Rabbit might sound, ‘Oh he’s not serious.'”
The Cardinals were serious about their interest in Taylor-Demerson, selecting him in the fourth round out of Texas Tech.
Andre Chachere started last season on the practice squad but was elevated in Week 1 and signed to the active roster on Sept. 16. He played all 17 games and started five.
Also in the mix: CBs: Jaden Davis, Divaad Wilson, Darren Hall, Bobby Price, Michael Ojemudia. Safeties: Joey Blount, Verone McKinley III.
Top photo of recently signed Cardinals CB Sean Murphy-Bunting via Getty Images
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