KendrickBourne

Oct 12

The former first-round pick was a healthy inactive, and it was recently announced that he would be traded to the Houston Texans.

Arizona used a straightforward rotation over the first four weeks. Michael Wilson played in 11, 12 and 13 personnel, Harrison in 11 and 12 personnel and Kendrick Bourne in 11 personnel. Brooks played 13 snaps and Simi Fehoko played 12, with nearly half of their snaps coming in garbage time. With Harrison inactive, fifth-round rookie Reggie Virgil was active for the first time in his career. Brooks largely took over as Arizona's X receiver, catching two passes for 16 yards. Fehoko rotated in for Brooks at times on early downs, while Virgil saw significant playing time in garbage time. Brooks will likely see the most playing time in the short term, but the Cardinals are currently 1-4, and they could slowly but surely shift to some of their younger players. If that happens, we could see Virgil take over as the X receiver at some point this season.

Oct 5

The Cardinals spent the first three weeks with Michael Wilson as the primary wide receiver in 13 personnel, Harrison joining Wilson in 12 personnel and Kendrick Bourne accompanying the two in 11 personnel. Arizona followed a similar rotation this week, but the team played out of 13 personnel for a season-high 24 plays and never ran a snap out of 12 personnel. Harrison played all 42 snaps out of 11 personnel but only one of the 24 snaps out of 13 personnel. This led to a season-low 65.2% snap rate after playing at least 74% of snaps in each of the first three games. This had a subtle effect on his route participation rate, as he ran a route on 82.1% of the Cardinals' passing plays after averaging 85.4% over the first three weeks. Head coach Mike LaFleur was the Rams' offensive coordinator last season when the Rams shifted more heavily toward 13 personnel. It’s possible Arizona continues to lean into that personnel grouping this year, as this was the Cardinals' second straight game using it on over 20% of snaps.