The Arizona Cardinals agreed to acquire Las Vegas Raiders veteran Rodney Hudson with an exchange of draft options, reports Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network and ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter adds that the exchange is for a choice of Arizona’s third round going to Las Vegas. The Cardinals will receive a selection from the Raiders’ seventh round.
Las Vegas was prepared to release Hudson before resolving the problem, just before the 1 pm MST deadline for the new year of the NFL league.
Hudson, 31, is a Pro Bowler three times (2016-17, 2019) who was Second Team All-Pro in 2019.
The Cardinals will sign a two-year contract with Hudson, including 2021.
Hudson will have an initial role ahead of the Mason Cole and Lamont Gaillard return centers.
He posted a score of 73.6 on Pro Football Focus last season, well above the site’s ranking for Cole (54.4) and Gaillard (48.1).
It is not a surprising move for the Cardinals after racing game coordinator and offensive line coach Sean Kugler suggested in February that the status quo was not good enough.
He effectively opened the initial central role for the take after Cole and Gaillard had their ups and downs in 2020.
“The two players sometimes played extremely well … both fought, both being young players,” said Kugler. “I think the central position in general needs to take the next step, to improve.”
Cole fell at week 1 with an injury and was spelled relatively well by Gaillard for two weeks. Gaillard did enough throughout the year to win more meaningful photos in the last month of 2020.
At the end of the season, Cole, Arizona’s choice in the third round of 2018, had thrown 914 pressures against Gaillard’s 219. Gaillard was drafted in the sixth round by Arizona in 2019.
The pair combined seven penalties, although they were far from being the only players who suffered penalties on the offensive line.
Perhaps the Cardinals saw the loss of veteran AQ Shipley’s voice in the room after the 2019 season as a reason for the increase in errors along the line.
In any case, it is clear that Arizona is prioritizing the growth of third year quarterback Kyler Murray.
Arizona last month prioritized improvement in the trenches. General manager Steve Keim kicked off the off-season with the signing of striker JJ Watt and top runners Markus Golden and Dennis Gardeck.
While the Cardinals lost or left the race to get the market pivot – former Packers center Corey Linsley signed a contract with the Los Angeles Chargers – they have now strengthened their line.
The Cardinals could have more decisions to make to the right of the center, even after starting the tackle on the right Kelvin Beachum again signed.
Right guard JR Sweezy, who lost his initial role to Justin Murray last year, is also a free agent.
