Cardinals Receive Little From Rookies in Loss vs. Chiefs
Nothing could go right in Week 1 for the Arizona Cardinals in their brutal 44-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury even admitted after the game they were simply out-played and out-coached.
Something lost in the Cardinals' excruciating loss was the lack of production from the 2022 rookie draft class.
Before the game, the outlook of the rookies was off to a less-than-promising start with the healthy inactives of second-round tight end Trey McBride and third-round outside linebacker Myjai Sanders.
Arizona's rookies ended with just 13 total non-special teams snaps in the season opener. Guard Lecitus Smith played in eight snaps, which all came during the final series, defensive end Cameron Thomas appeared in four snaps and cornerback Christian Matthew was on the field for one snap.
Arizona had three other draft picks in sixth-round pick Keaontay Ingram and seventh-rounders Jesse Luketa and Marquis Hayes. Ingram and Luketa are on the team's practice squad and Hayes is on the season-ending Injured Reserve.
It's worth noting that the Cardinals traded a first-round pick in the 2022 draft for Marquise Brown, who caught 4 passes for 43 yards and a touchdown Sunday.
While McBride didn't have a great training camp or preseason, it was a bit surprising to see the second-round pick being inactive — especially with Zach Ertz's injury status up in the air before game time. Ertz was active and caught two passes for 14 yards in just 60% of snaps. Maxx Williams was the No. 2 tight end, with Stephen Anderson being the third-string.
Kingsbury explained after the game why McBride was ruled inactive.
“He just has to keep coming," Kingsbury said. "Still thinking a little bit out there. He's got the right skill set and he's working hard but we felt like the other three guys with the numbers that we needed in other places were the right move.”
As for the Chiefs, they had rookie impact players.
Chiefs first-round picks Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis saw time on the field. McDuffie didn't see any targets across his 21 coverage snaps, per PFF. Karlaftis had three pressures and a quarterback hit across his 22 pass-rushing snaps. Even Chiefs seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco scored the first touchdown of his career and had a game-high 62 rushing yards.
There's no question that the dominance of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and head coach Andy Reid made the difference in the lopsided victory.
The Cardinals had 12 total players on their injury report, which didn't help their chances of winning.
But not getting production from a rookie draft class that resulted in nine players is not a good start by any means.
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