The Arizona Cardinals have agreed to take over veteran center Rodney Hudson from the Las Vegas Raiders with a swap of design choices, reports Mike Garafolo of NFL Network and Adam Schefter of ESPN
Schefter adds that the exchange is for a third round of Arizona heading to Las Vegas. The Cardinals will receive a Raiders roster from the seventh round.
Las Vegas was reportedly willing to release Hudson before it worked out the deal just before the 1:00 p.m. MST deadline for the new NFL league year.
Hudson, 31, is a three-time Pro Bowler (2016-17, 2019) who was Second Team All-Pro in 2019.
The Cardinals sign a contract for Hudson that has two more years, including 2021.
Hudson will play a starting role for Mason Cole and Lamont Gaillard return centers.
Last season he achieved a score of 73.6 on Pro Football Focus, well above the website score for Cole (54.4) and Gaillard (48.1).
It’s not a surprising move for the Cardinals after game coordinator and offensive line coach Sean Kugler suggested in February that the status quo wasn’t good enough.
He effectively opened the starting center role for the taking after Cole and Gaillard had their ups and downs in 2020.
“Both guys played extremely well at times … both guys, they had a hard time, both were young players,” said Kugler. “I think the central position in general has to take the next step to improve.”
Cole went down with an injury in week 1 and was spelled relatively well by Gaillard for two weeks. Gaillard did enough throughout the year to earn more important photos in the last month of 2020.
By the end of the season, Cole, Arizona’s 2018 third round pick, had played 914 snaps against Gaillard’s 219. Gaillard was drafted in the sixth round by Arizona in 2019.
The duo combined seven penalties, though they were by no means the only penalty-hit players along the offensive line.
Perhaps the Cardinals saw the loss of veteran center AQ Shipley’s voice in the room after the 2019 season as one reason for the rise in errors down the line.
In any case, it’s clear that Arizona is prioritizing the growth of third-year quarterback Kyler Murray.
Arizona has prioritized improvement in the trenches for the past month. General manager Steve Keim kicked off the offseason by signing defensive lineman JJ Watt and retaining edge rushers Markus Golden and Dennis Gardeck.
While the Cardinals missed or pulled themselves out of the running to get the top center on the market – former Packers center Corey Linsley signed a record deal with the Los Angeles Chargers – they’ve now bolstered their line.
The Cardinals could make more decisions to the right of center, even after Kelvin Beachum started tackling again.
Legal guardian JR Sweezy, who lost his starting role to Justin Murray last year, is also a free agent.
