Tony Jefferson, safety, Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals have three big-time free agent defenders they’d love to keep this offseason — defensive end Calais Campbell, pass rusher Chandler Jones and Jefferson.
Team president Michael Bidwell has already made it clear he’ll use the franchise tag to retain Jones (more on that here) so it could come down to keeping Jefferson or Campbell in the end. The Cardinals will likely have to choose, simply because keeping both players on top of paying Jones will be too expensive.
Of the two, we’re giving Jefferson a higher value to Arizona, which features an up-and-coming star in Robert Nkemdiche, who’ll be entering his second season in 2017 and could be viewed as the long-term replacement for Campbell.
Jefferson is a player we highlighted as one who’s about to make some big money this spring. A do-it-all safety who is dangerous in the box against the run and as a pass-rusher off the edge, he is just starting to come into his own and meshes well with the other talented players featured in Arizona.
Still, it won’t be surprising whatsoever if Jefferson ends up on another team. He’s going to be in high demand and could end up out of Arizona’s price range. If he does end up bolting, then the Cardinals will be left with a huge hole to fill on the back end of their defense.