3. Arizona Cardinals
This is what we call a sleeper threat. The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars are legitimate threats to sign away Hunter Henry and I would not be shocked if he joined either team. The Cardinals would come as a slight surprise, but they certainly have the need.
Arizona was right on the cusp of making the NFL Playoffs last season and if Kyler Murray does not get hurt in Week 17 against the Los Angeles Rams then perhaps they would have beat John Wolford and gotten into the NFL Playoffs.
They are right there and with the NFC being so wide open next season they should be doing everything in their power to get there. They do not have a ton of cap space, but they can get savvy with the cap to bring in someone like Henry.
The Cardinals currently have just over $9 million in cap space, which obviously is not enough for Henry, let alone Henry and the 2021 draft class. However, the Cardinals only have $640,839 in dead money and have contracts that they can free up for no dead money or small amounts of dead money.
The team can cut Chandler Jones and save $15.5 million against the cap and only pay him $5.3 million in dead cap. Jones has been one of the best pass rushers in the league but he only played five games last season, only recorded one sack in those five games and is going to be 31. He is a prime cut candidate.
The team can free up another $7.5 million in mediocre cornerback Robert Alford. That alone is $23 million in new cap space for the Cardinals. If they plan on drafting a guard early in the draft they can even cut veteran Justin Pugh to save another $7.1 million, giving them $30 million to spend.
And with that, they could acquire Henry. The team needs a legitimate pass-catching tight end and Henry would provide just that.