The Arizona Cardinals’ offensive line ranked #26 for the 2025 NFL season. Yeah, that’s pretty bad. To be fair, a lot of situations occurred to help drive that number way down.
At season’s end, the IR list
housed three starters: RG Will Hernandez, RT Jonah Williams, and OT Paris Johnson. In addition, starting RB James Conner and his backup, Trey Benson, ended their season on IR as well.
RELATED: 2026 CARDINALS FREE AGENT LIST
Both starting guards, Evan Brown and Isaiah Adams, have plenty of issues. Brown’s Pro Football Focus grade was 54.3, while Adams graded out at 57.2, and Hernandez, when he was healthy, had a 45.3 overall grade.
The offensive guard position really needs two new bodies. Hernandez is a free agent, so that takes care of one, but Brown has one year remaining with a cap hit of $6.41 million, and Adams just finished the second year of his four-year rookie deal and will be paid $1.3 million in base salary.
The NFL free agency period begins March 9-11.
Let’s start with replacing one offensive guard at a time. So, Arizona needs starters and quality backups for the guard position. Perhaps both Adams and Brown could become experienced backups, especially Adams, since he was drafted in the third round of the 2024 to eventually become the starter.
Here is a free agent guard possibility for the Cardinals: OG David Edwards.
OG David Edwards
Buffalo Bills
2025 PFF rating: 73.7
NFL draft: 2019 Round 5, pick #169 (Rams)
Career Accolades: Super Bowl Champion 2021 (Rams)
2023 season: 16 starts, 1,035 offensive snaps
Extremely durable player has only missed 14 games due to injury since coming into the league in 2019. Excellent athleticism and high upside. Very good run blocker and known for his quickness.
In the 2025 season, Edwards had only three penalties and allowed three sacks this year, all at left guard. He also allowed 27 pressures.
He has versatility in that he has played tackle before. He was the starting right tackle for three years while at Wisconsin, where he was voted First Team All-American.
His snap count for this past year is incredible and demonstrates his ability to play with nicks and various ailments and still show up on Sundays. The year before, he had 977 snaps. Edwards has long arms with a massive frame. He is good at pulling and taking out linebackers at the second level.
He is a bit raw in technical aspects and will overextend occasionally. But what the Cardinals will be getting in Edwards is an aggressive guard with great mobility. He is an exceptional player and won’t come cheap.
