Veteran Cardinals CB is Changing Position — And it Could Pay Off Immediately

The Arizona Cardinals have a massive hole on their roster to begin the 2026 regular season, though a position change from a veteran cornerback could very well steady the ship until their secondary reaches full health again.

Garrett Williams is one of the team's best players in their defensive backfield. A versatile corner who has aligned on the boundary, slot and sometimes safety, Williams' talent and capability to play multiple roles at a high level has made him a favorite of defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.

When teams are in 11 personnel, Williams is Arizona's slot cornerback — though a torn Achilles suffered in Week 16 will surely see him miss the beginning of the 2026 regular season.

That's a massive hole in the Cardinals' secondary, though the team believes they've found a band-aid until Williams is able to return to full health.

Veteran cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting was an anticipated cut candidate entering the 2026 offseason after a shaky 2024 campaign that was followed by an eventual offseason knee injury that saw him miss the entirity of 2025.

Yet the Cardinals decided to restructure his contract to keep him aboard, and their plans were even further revealed when OTAs rolled around and Murphy-Bunting was spotted working with safeties rather than boundary cornerbacks during positional drills.

"We just felt like that was what's best for where our roster is at right now, and it's something that he did back in Tampa as well. So we knew he had the ability to do it," Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis said this week.

"We just had to kind of get him back into that mode, because it had been several years in a row he'd been out there at corner only, but he's very natural inside so he can play both those spots."

Murphy-Bunting was a key part of that Buccaneers secondary that ultimately won Super Bowl LV. While confetti won't be falling down on the Cardinals this season, Murphy-Bunting's reintroduction to the slot should potentially pay off immediately for an Arizona defense that won't have one of their best defensive players available to start the year.

"We'll use our nickel unique in terms of pressures or playing some deep zones, so there's a lot of different techniques, and that's part of the reason that our nickels and safeties are together, not our nickel corners. But it's stuff that he's done for the most part," Rallis continued.

"You just got to get back working those techniques."

The transition from outside to inside isn't as seamless as some would think. It's not a game of Madden where you can simply just put a player on the field and have them play up to their best football.

In terms of spacing, footwork and processing, it's an entirely different world — one the Cardinals are hoping Murphy-Bunting can re-enter smoothly.

"You have to be able to process very fast inside, just because things pass off a little bit quicker in there, but also you're a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage, and you're just going to be involved in a lot of what I would call coverage tools, so like it is not easy," said Rallis.

"When we've had the rookies, I've stepped in at the nickel spot, and I made sure I went and deleted that film, because just to do it is a different animal, and you have to be able to see a lot of things and process fast. So that's the biggest thing that you're ultimately looking for, a lot of those routes, with the route tree, you still have to have the long speed. But being able to go A to B, transitions is very important in the slot."

Add us as a preferred source on Google