According to a report from South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Omar Kelly, the Arizona Cardinals could be interested in trading defensive end Calais Campbell. In eight seasons, all of them with ‘Zona, Calais has played in 122 of 128 games, starting 104. The past two seasons have been the most valuable of his career, earning him back to back Pro Bowl credits. Campbell also earned 2nd Team All-NFL honors on Pro Football Focus in 2011 and 2nd Team All-NFL honors from the Associated Press in 2014. The former second round pick in the 2008 NFL draft out of the U will be 30 when the 2016 season kicks off. Should the New York Giants consider a trade for him?
Word on the street is that former University of Miami DE Calais Campbell is being shopped.
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) March 7, 2016
Here are CC’s stats according to Pro Football Reference:
| Games | Def Interceptions | Fumbles | Sacks & Tackles | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Age | G | GS | Int | Yds | Lng | PD | FF | Fmb | FR | Sk | Tkl | Ast | AV |
| 2008 | 22 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 5 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 23 | 16 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 35 | 11 | 7 |
| 2010 | 24 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6.0 | 46 | 14 | 7 |
| 2011 | 25 | 16 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8.0 | 52 | 19 | 10 |
| 2012 | 26 | 13 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6.5 | 50 | 13 | 8 | |||
| 2013 | 27 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | 45 | 13 | 9 |
| 2014* | 28 | 14 | 14 | 1 | 23 | 23 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 48 | 14 | 15 |
| 2015* | 29 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5.0 | 46 | 15 | 13 |
| Career | 122 | 104 | 2 | 23 | 23 | 36 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 48.5 | 339 | 104 | 70 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Pretty consistent numbers. Double digit “approximate value” in three of the past five seasons and not far off from hitting 10 in those other two. Six feet 8 inches, 283 pounds. Halfway through last seasons, Calais was most likely to close down running lanes, accruing the highest run-stop percentage.
Black and Teal
According to Pro Football Focus, Calais “is typically thought of as being a prototypical base 3-4 end, a 5-technique, but the Cardinals lineman spent over half of his snaps in 2014 as a 3-tech.”
Calais Campbell signed a 5 year, $55,000,000 contract with the Arizona Cardinals, including a $15,000,000 signing bonus, $31,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $11,000,000. In 2016, Campbell will earn a base salary of $9,500,000 and a workout bonus of $250,000. Campbell has a cap hit of $15,250,000 – the third highest on the team – while his dead money value is $5,500,000. He’s entering the final year of that contract and his “True Value Rating” was 20.92 in 2015, which places him 80th out of 96 defensive ends who played at least 25% of their unit’s snaps.
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians has stated his squad doesn’t have any needs, but ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss notes Arizona could use an edge pass rusher, cornerback, running back, and offensive tackle, which essentially matches the Giants’. Apparently, the Cardinals really like Jason Pierre-Paul, so that potential free agent signing would take care of their pass rusher need, allowing them to part with Campbell. The Giants don’t have any corners or tackles to offer (Marshall Newhouse???), so it looks like it would come down to running back or a draft pick.
I don’t see the Cardinals having any interest in any of the Giants running backs. Andre Williams is young and has potential as a short yardage back or milk-the-clock workhorse (though it never panned out with New York). Orleans Darkwa was re-signed as an exclusive rights free agent, so it’s possible the Giants could deal him and get something back in return? The back that seems like the best fit would be Shane Vereen, but would the Giants be willing to bail so early on such a significant free agent acquisition and such an integral part of Ben McAdoo’s plans in 2016?
So, with the Giants sitting at the tenth overall pick and multiple mock drafts projecting Big Blue selecting Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott, would it make sense to trade that pick to the Cardinals to get Arizona’s first round pick, plus another late round pick AND Calais Campbell? While your eyebrows might’ve arched, this also doesn’t seem reasonable for Arizona since they have a very promising back in David Johnson.
Other less likely options include offering Ryan Nassib to be the heir apparent to Carson Palmer or one of the Giants promising young tight ends – Larry Donnell or Will Tye – to replace free agent Jermaine Gresham. On the surface, this trade doesn’t appear to work, but could be more appealing if the draft rolls around and the Giants are unable to re-sign JPP and Ayers nor a free agent pass rusher.