Cardinals Should Trade for Titans Pass Rusher

Would the Arizona Cardinals be better off acquiring somebody on the league's trade market as opposed to the free agency or NFL draft?

This presents a fascinating debate, as there are several noteworthy players who will be entering free agency and the Cardinals can absolutely sign one or more of them to whatever contract they need.

However, there are several veterans on the trade market now who would be terrific adds for the Cardinals; one of which is Tennessee Titans pass rusher Harold Landry.

Harold Landry Makes Sense for Cardinals

Back in the 2018 NFL draft, Landry was leaving Boston College as one of their most accomplished pass rushers in program history. Landry ended up being a second-round pick by the Titans, and it didn’t take very long for him to establish himself as a star pass rusher.

It didn’t take long for Landry to become one of the best kept secrets for pass rushers across the league. After a rock solid 4.5 sack season as a rookie, Landry has posted no less than nine sacks in a season in all about one year (he had 5.5 in 2020).

Landry did miss the entirety of the 2022 season with an injury, but he hasn’t missed a game since returning the last two years.

With six seasons of play, Landry has 50.5 career sacks and missed just one game as a rookie. In the 2021 and 2023 seasons, Landry recorded double-digit sacks (12 and 10.5 respectively). When it comes to bringing down the quarterback, Landry is as good as they come, despite being a borderline niche player.

His numbers go beyond sacks, too. He only has one season where he failed to record at least 68 tackles in a year, which was when he was a rookie and had 44.

The Titans are currently facing a full-blown rebuild right now, and moving on from some of their veterans is in the folds for them. Landry appears to be one of those guys.

Despite most fans, not being familiar with Landry, I can promise you that his market should be extensive.

Landry is yet another one of those guys many believe the Cardinals should target, and that makes sense.

For starters, there’s two years remaining on his current deal which would run into his age 30 season. He does have big cap hits of over $24 million in those two years, but his production and more importantly, his reliability to stay on the field backs up that value.

There truly are few guys with the resume, consistency, and health that Landry has who see the trade market.

I don’t want to continue saying the same things over and over again when we talk about adding guys to this edge rushing group. What I will say is Landry will only be 29 years old in June, so he’s still right in the prime of his career — even if it’s on the back half.

There’s also no question about his production, as he would be the team‘s leader in sacks for his last three healthy seasons. Believe it or not, that includes 2021. We’re both Markus Golden and Chandler Jones each had double digits.

And for what it’s worth, in five playoff games, Landry has recorded 4.5 sacks. The production goes beyond the regular season.

Landry is also going into his eighth season in the league with plenty of experience and knowledge to pass down to the youngsters on this team and who will one day join this team.

Landry is more than a fine player and somebody that many teams contending for a championship should be interested in. Although the Cardinals may not fit that status, he’s somebody who makes a ton of sense for this defensive scheme - especially for a defense that was sneaky good last year.

Give this defense an ace pass rusher and I truly believe they can become an above average unit. Landry is a terrific player and can fill that role for Arizona - and if everything goes right, you can happily give him another extension and make him a cornerstone of this defense.

I’d be more than happy to part with a day three pick or some combination of future selections to get Landry on this team knowing he’ll make an impact this year and for years beyond.