Football Outsiders: Arizona Cardinals made right call in not signing Marcus Cooper

Every year Football Outsiders produces one of the must buy analytics and information based books of the year. The 2017 Football Outsiders Almanac is available for purchase now and Football Outsiders was kind enough to provide us some answers on the 2016 Arizona Cardinals and look forward to the 2017.

Tramon Williams, Justin Bethel and Brandon Williams or should the Cards have ponied up for Marcus Cooper?

Bryan Knowles from Football Outsiders

I think Arizona was smart not to buy into Cooper. Yes, he had four interceptions, but he was only 67th among qualified cornerbacks in success rate. He put up highlight-reel plays, but too often failed at the more basic elements of coverage. He was the sixth-most targeted cornerback in football last year; yes, some of that is "maybe don't throw at Patrick Peterson", but some of it was opposing offenses seeing a vulnerability and attacking it.

There's talent there, but not at $5.3 million a year. I like Bethel quite a bit, and I think he's ready for the step up. Brandon Williams has a lot of talent, too, though he was thrown to the wolves way too early last season, considering his lack of experience at the position.

While there is definitely a concern about who plays opposite Patrick Peterson still, the Cardinals likely made the right decision in letting Cooper and his bigger contract walk.

The Cardinals need someone to step up, through the beginning of camp it looks like it will be Justin Bethel.

They’ll likely just have to worry about it again next year.