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The Arizona Cardinals are coming off a season in which they finished 8-9. It was a big improvement for head coach Jonathan Gannon after he went 4-13 in his first year as head coach in Arizona. With that, Gannon is hoping he can lead his team to the playoffs.
The San Francisco 49ers were an injury-riddled team last season, and they traded away Deebo Samuel. The Seattle Seahawks traded Geno Smith after a couple good years. The Los Angeles Rams are the reigning NFC West champions, but they released one of their top players in Cooper Kupp. The point being, the division is wide open for anybody to take, and the Cardinals are hoping they can be that team.
All things considered, Arizona had a fantastic draft this season. They were able to pick an All-American cornerback in Will Johnson in the second round, and they landed the National Championship defensive MVP, Cody Simon, in the fourth round. However, the one rookie turning heads in OTAs so far is their first round pick, Walter Nolen.
Nolen was the first round pick for the Cardinals this year. He is a defensive tackle out of Ole Miss, and he is a force in the middle of the defensive line. At Ole Miss, Nolen had 48 total tackles, 14 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, 6.5 sacks, and he was a first-team All-American. The Cardinals feel like they got a steal with Nolen dropping to them at 16.
The Cardinals already have a strong defensive front with Calais Campbell, L.J. Collier, Justin Jones, and Dalvin Tomlinson. Adding Nolen to that mix gives Arizona one of the strongest defensive lines in the NFL. Pairing him with Campbell in the middle of the line is going to make it very hard for opposing teams to run the ball between the tackles.
The skill that Nolen possess has already been on display during OTAs. The 6-foot-4, 298 pound defensive lineman is catching the eye of defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
“I knew he was going to be the talent that we saw on tape, but I would say he’s very coachable, great to work with. You see him take those coaching points immediately to the field, whether that’s in individual (work) or we’re going against the offense. I can tell he studies hard outside of the building because he’s got things down pretty fast. Pretty impressive so far,” Rallis said, per Tyler Drake of Arizona Sports.
Nolen is going to be a force of nature on the line in Arizona if he keeps it up.
He has a great chance to earn the starting spot alongside Campbell. The Ole Miss product is very strong up front, and it is starting to transfer over to the next level. He did sit out of the first week of OTAs, but that was not because of injury or anything significant. Nolen is on the field...
