Arizona Cardinals made prudent decision in Markus Golden coming back

When you look at the offseason some moves that are not made get as much if not more scrutiny for teams.

For the Arizona Cardinals, I discussed why not paying Corey Linsley was the right move, then the Cardinals got even better with Rodney Hudson on a more reasonable contract.

Today, I wanted to look at the contracts that went to the re-signed Markus Golden and the contract that Haason Reddick signed with the Carolina Panthers.

When the offseason started the consensus among the fans seemed to be that Reddick coming back at a team friendly cost was imperative.

Jess and I discussed the number we were hearing for Reddick would be right around $8 million a season. That came to fruition and seems to have set off a “Why wouldn’t the Cardinals do that”? reaction from some fans.

When, the reality is for the Cardinals they made the move in retaining a player like Markus Golden that has been just as good, has more consistency and got him for two seasons for what you were going to pay Reddick for a season.

Golden is one of the most productive pressure creators in the NFL:

There is also the reality that players tend to find offers from their current organization insulting then receive similar or lesser offers in free agency and decide to move on.

We saw it with Tyranny Mathieu and it worked. We saw it for Markus Golden and it didn’t work and now he’s back.

Reddick was hoping to cash in but had some things working against him.

First, he’s a one-year wonder of production.

Second, Reddick has a problem that he seems pigeon-holed on where he can play. He struggled as a true off ball player, so it seems like edge is his best bet.

I think we all agree it would have been nice to have Reddick back, but at the end of the day, the Cardinals will likely get similar production at half the cost.

Plus, they may be able to bring Reddick back next year, so who knows.