Arizona Cardinals: Robert Nkemdiche Needs to Step Up in 2017
By Tyler Olson
The Arizona Cardinals need to fill the void left by Calais Campbell, and they hope Robert Nkemdiche can take over in 2017.
It’s not easy to lose a player like Calais Campbell. With the Arizona Cardinals for nine seasons, he was not only a productive player, but also a vocal leader in the locker room. There’s plenty of leadership to go around in Arizona, however.
Between veteran wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, cornerback Patrick Peterson and safety/cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, the loss of Campbell in that respect will be missed but not entirely. Now in his second season in the desert with a fat new contract, Chandler Jones is also looking to become more of a vocal leader, per Pro Football Talk.
General manager Steve Keim knew that losing Campbell was a possibility with the price tag he would be demanding in free agency, and deservedly so. At the age of 30, he had one of his most productive seasons ending 2016 with eight sacks, three fumble recoveries (one of which was returned for a touchdown), a safety and an interception.
Arizona was prepared for Campbell’s departure last offseason. When pick No. 29 rolled around in the 2016 NFL Draft, they chose to take former Ole Miss Rebels defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche. Tabbed as a potential top pick throughout his junior season, Nkemdiche started falling down draft boards as his collegiate tenure came to a close.
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With questions already looming regarding his motor on the field, Nkemdiche made major headlines when he fell 15-feet out of his Atlanta hotel room, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The incident inevitably led police to the hotel room where they found marijuana and Nkemdiche was arrested. This forced Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze to suspend him for the Allstate Sugar Bowl as he ultimately decided to declare for the NFL Draft.
Eventually those concerns surrounding Nkemdiche prior to the draft forced NFL teams to take a longer look at him. While production at the college level weighs heavy when evaluating talent at the next level, so does character.
Last April, we watched Nkemdiche fall down the draft, once a potential top-five selection slipping to 29th overall. The same thing happened to Ole Miss teammate Laremy Tunsil after the infamous smoking video broke out minutes before the draft was supposed to start. Although Tunsil only fell to 14th overall, it proved that teams were leery about investing in either Rebel.
Fast-forward to the 2016 regular season. Those concerns teams had before the draft turned into a reality for head coach Bruce Arians, per NFL.com, as he found himself at odds with the rookie. Nkemdiche only saw the field for 45 defensive snaps in the first nine weeks of the season. He eventually finished the year with just 82 snaps in the six games that he was active. That amounted to just 7.63 percent of Arizona’s defensive snaps over the course of the season.
To put that in perspective, Keim, Arians and the rest of the Cardinals coaching will be looking for him to take over Campbell’s 830 snaps in 2017.
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This offseason is crucial for Nkemdiche to grow as a professional athlete. At just 22, it seems like a tall task trying to replace a player like Campbell. But he has no choice. He can’t afford to take plays off or allow any setbacks with nagging injuries. He’ll be letting not only his team, but the fanbase down if he can’t win over the trust from the coaching staff.