Arizona Cardinals Love Chandler Jones

The Arizona Cardinals will return the statistically best offense in the NFL from 2015. Defensively, they stop the run well and have one of the best secondaries in football. And they made it as far as the NFC Championship Game, where they were routed by the Carolina Panthers.

The one thing that was missing with the Cardinals in 2015 was a great pass rush. They have a good interior defensive line and an aggressive scheme but only managed a middle-of-the-league 36 sacks. A star edge-rusher was what the team was in dire need off.

So this offseason, the Cardinals worked out a trade with the New England Patriots for Chandler Jones. Jones racked up 12.5 sacks last season and 36 over his four years in New England. If he brings that production to the desert., the Cardinals could go to the Super Bowl.

But will he?

The Cardinals like what they’ve seen from Jones so far in camp and think so.

Cornerback Patrick Peterson told The Arizona Republic, “There’s no doubt about it. He has the potential to be a 20-plus sack guy. He’s in a contract year, too, so I know he’s going to be even that much hungrier.”

Safety Tyrann Mathieu took the offensive lines in the NFC West into account, saying, “In this division, yeah, he can get 20 sacks. In this division, they rely on their quarterbacks to make plays—San Francisco and Seattle. I just figure it like this: “If [Dwight] Freeney had eight sacks in a backup role, Chandler should probably get 20 in a starting role.”