Cardinals Urged to Make Massive WR Trade

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals hope to right the ship in 2023, and fans are hoping the team addresses a handful of positions in order to return back to the postseason sooner rather than later.

One of the top consensus needs for the Cardinals is at wide receiver, where depth was already questionable before Marquise Brown departing for free agency. Arizona desperately needs a top playmaker for Kyler Murray moving forward, and there's been a handful of ideas thrown around across the web.

The 33rd Team's Dan Pizzuta recently wrote a piece going through various "broken" teams and how they can be fixed.

For the Cardinals, the suggestion was a massive WR trade with Tee Higgins or Stefon Diggs as targets:

"You could throw Brandon Aiyuk in here too, but that would be an unexpected intradivisional trade. The idea is for the Arizona Cardinals to add another wide receiver on top of potentially drafting Marvin Harrison Jr. Arizona could use the 27th or 35th overall pick to swing a trade," wrote Pizzuta.

"The Cardinals have about $40 million in cap space, allowing them to absorb the cost of the franchise tag for Tee Higgins or the salary for Stefon Diggs, which will be around $21.8 million for 2024.

"Even after the Bengals tagged Higgins, they could trade him with no dead money and use the high draft pick to replace him while the team prepares a top-of-the-market extension for Ja’Marr Chase. Diggs and the Bills' relationship is rocky, and the receiver might want a fresh start.

"Arizona should try to extend Higgins, which would lower his cap hit for next season. Diggs still has four years remaining on an extension signed in 2022 but will only have $3.5 million in guarantees after 2024.

"Either receiver would give the Cardinals a boost in the downfield passing game, which was lacking upon Kyler Murray’s return during the second half of the 2023 season. Murray was 13th in EPA per play among quarterbacks from Week 10 on but was 32nd on throws of 11 or more air yards.

"Some of that was rust on timing throws to the intermediate area of the field, but it wouldn't hurt to add a receiver who can dominate in that area.

"Having a group of Diggs or Higgins to pair with Harrison Jr., Trey McBride and Michael Wilson could give the Cardinals an offense with enough firepower to hang in the NFC West. The division featured three of the top 10 offenses by EPA per play in 2023.

"Trading for and drafting a wide receiver would allow the Cardinals to go heavy on defense in free agency and after their top pick in the draft. That is where the depth and value line up to fix a defense that tried some fun things but ranked 32nd in EPA per play last season."

The Cardinals do have some cap space to play with - over $50 million currently on OverTheCap - but would a trade for a costly star prove to be worth it?