After three seasons as a Cardinals starter, Jordan Hicks is back in free agency. Arizona is releasing the veteran linebacker, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Cards have since announced the move.
This move comes a year after Hicks landed in trade rumors, once the Cardinals added Zaven Collins as a first-round pick. Arizona went back-to-back with off-ball linebackers in Round 1 from 2020-21, and it will be Collins and Isaiah Simmons leading the group going forward.
Hicks should garner interest as a street free agent. He is a vested veteran and can sign with a team at any point going forward. This release will give the seven-year vet a chance to catch on elsewhere before the free agent market opens March 16. While Hicks will turn 30 this offseason, he did well to change his career trajectory in three Arizona seasons.
The former injury-prone Eagle stayed healthy as a Cardinal, playing in every game with his second NFL franchise. While the Cardinals gave Hicks permission to seek a trade shortly after selecting Collins in last year’s first round, Hicks logged his usual snap rate in 2021. He played 97% of Arizona’s defensive snaps last season, that coming after working on 92% of the team’s defensive plays in 2020 and 100% in 2019. Collins will surely see more run in 2022, after participating on just 20% of Arizona’s defensive plays last season.
Last season, Hicks racked up 116 tackles and registered a career-high four sacks. He finished with 29 tackles for loss in three seasons in the desert. The Cardinals will save $6.5MM by cutting Hicks, who had one year remaining on his contract. This doubles as the end of an obscure era as well, one that featured two Jordan Hickses affiliated with professional Cardinal franchises. The other, a St. Louis reliever, remains with his team.
Chargers come to mind. They need more help against the run.
still a really talented inside linebacker
I’m not really sure why Arizona signed Hicks just to render him obsolete immediately. Simmons didn’t play well his rookie year, but the Cardinals seem to love grabbing athletic linebackers and just moving them all over so they can’t settle in to the pros. I suppose Hicks was to be insurance for that.
He’ll be very useful to a lot of teams. I don’t know if Hicks will ever be considered not injury prone as a player, but being available last year should help him secure a deal this offseason.
Because GM Keim is an idiot.
Evidence would seem to point in that direction, I agree. He does get lucky a lot, somehow.
Come home to Colorado