James Conner & SMB Restructures - Will Be Back

[PDXChris]

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[PDXChris]

James Conner agrees to contract restructure, will be back for 2026 season

The Arizona Cardinals and James Conner have agreed on a restructured deal for 2026.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[outcent13]

And SMB . It will be interesting to see how low they got those cap numbers.

 

[PDXChris]

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[PDXChris]

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[Adrian]

Bo Brack
@BoBrack
The Arizona Cardinals continue to add cap space by reworking a pair of veterans’ deals.

Both James Conner & Sean Murphy-Bunting held cap hits over $9M before restructuring.

 

[Totally_Red]

Glad that JC is back at a lower number. I feel he still has value as a goal line and short yardage back and a leader in the locker room.

 

[HairZach]

With this move we are almost certainly going into the season with Benson and Conner as our top 2 RBs.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

Glad that JC is back at a lower number. I feel he still has value as a goal line and short yardage back and a leader in the locker room.

...and he can still pass block.

 

[CardNots]

With this move we are almost certainly going into the season with Benson and Conner as our top 2 RBs.

It would not surprise me with a Love pick at 3.

 

[Totally_Red]

It would not surprise me with a Love pick at 3.

Agree. It makes Bailey or St. Francis more likely, but Love is still possible.

 

[GatorAZ]

Conner and Benson are solid backup options behind J<3. You need depth.

 

[Denny Green Fan]

Agree. It makes Bailey or St. Francis more likely, but Love is still possible.

Eh… I could see a running back at 65….with the first 2 picks being o line and d line

 

[FB94]

Arkansas RB third round

 

[HairZach]

Arkansas RB third round

He's pretty bad at playing running back, but his speed is elite. Wouldn't be a bad pick, although I doubt he would play much year 1.

 

[Redsz]

Fine with JC coming back. But if they are relying on him and Benson staying healthy this is a weak strategy.

 

[Chopper0080]

Fine with JC coming back. But if they are relying on him and Benson staying healthy this is a weak strategy.

See…you know how this is going down but you don’t want to admit it.

 

[az jam]

They need to draft an rb for sure to be the starter.

 

[Cheesebeef]

With this move we are almost certainly going into the season with Benson and Conner as our top 2 RBs.

Blegh…

 

[Cheesebeef]

Curious what the restructure does… are we pushing some of their money into next year’s cap or are they both just taking straight up pay cuts. If they’re pay cuts, fine… they both bring very little to the table at this point but whatever. If we’re just opening up a little more cap space and pushing those salaries into the future for guys on their last legs on a complete rebuild, this makes very little sense to me.

 

[Chopper0080]

Conner 100% prohibits any meaningful addition at RB UNLESS Monti just gives up on Benson which would be another failure in already bountiful bouquet of bad.

Similarly, why bring back SMB unless you have little to no faith in Melton and E Jones? STV is coming back as well which potentially further banishes two of Monti’s day 2 draft picks to the shadow realm.

Unserious franchise that could have freed up 14.8 mil combined and now will likely save 10 or less.

 

[Goldfield]

Love Conner staying but yes I want him as #2.

Not sure I get keeping SMB

 

[PDXChris]

Conner 100% prohibits any meaningful addition at RB UNLESS Monti just gives up on Benson which would be another failure in already bountiful bouquet of bad.

Similarly, why bring back SMB unless you have little to no faith in Melton and E Jones? STV is coming back as well which potentially further banishes two of Monti’s day 2 draft picks to the shadow realm.

Unserious franchise that could have freed up 14.8 mil combined and now will likely save 10 or less.

Agree on Conner, but SMB could be aj indication that GW might miss the season. GW and STV are out most experienced CBs at this point and STV is coming off a major knee injury too. These are major assumptions of course.

 

[Mainstreet]

Conner 100% prohibits any meaningful addition at RB UNLESS Monti just gives up on Benson which would be another failure in already bountiful bouquet of bad.

Similarly, why bring back SMB unless you have little to no faith in Melton and E Jones? STV is coming back as well which potentially further banishes two of Monti’s day 2 draft picks to the shadow realm.

Unserious franchise that could have freed up 14.8 mil combined and now will likely save 10 or less.

Probably need to draft a running back later in the draft.

 

[Proteus]

Agree on Conner, but SMB could be aj indication that GW might miss the season. GW and STV are out most experienced CBs at this point and STV is coming off a major knee injury too. These are major assumptions of course.

I don't think SMB and STV are slot corners though.