This spring, while Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams rehabbed the Achilles tear he suffered at the tip of last season, Sean Murphy-Bunting took over Williams’ usual role within the slot, as Zach Gershman of the team’s official website notes. That’s familiar territory for Murphy-Bunting, who saw over 1,100 snaps within the slot as a member of the Buccaneers from 2019-22.
Murphy-Bunting missed the whole lot of the 2025 slate resulting from a knee injury and is entering the ultimate yr of the three-year, $22.5MM deal he signed with Arizona in March 2024. Per Gershman, that knee injury turned out to be an ACL tear, and SMB handled some MCL damage as well. The ACL tear naturally required surgery, while Murphy-Bunting allowed the MCL to heal by itself.
Now 29, Murphy-Bunting didn’t see any motion within the slot in 2024, taking 580 snaps outside the numbers and 141 within the box. But even after his recent report indicating Williams could possibly be able to play in Week 1, Darren Urban of the Cards’ official site predicts SMB shall be within the nickel within the season opener.
Though he still spent the vast majority of his time within the slot, Williams took way more snaps out wide (172) in 2025 than he had in either of his first two skilled seasons. On condition that experience, and on condition that Murphy-Bunting thrived within the slot within the early stages of his profession, defensive coordinator Nick Rallis may give you the option to combine and match the duo over the course of the season.
In the identical piece linked above, Urban predicts 2025 second-rounder Will Johnson, who played reasonably well as a rookie, will land one in every of the 2 starting boundary corner gigs in Week 1. That could be a fairly easy call, however the query of who will start opposite Johnson is a little more difficult to reply.
At present, Urban expects one other second-year player, Denzel Burke, to assume that role. Each Burke and 2024 draftee Max Melton began eight games last season, and while neither player impressed Pro Football Focus, Urban characterizes Burke’s rookie performance as “solid.” PFF graded Burke because the league’s 81st-best corner out of 112 qualified players, while Melton was near the very bottom at No. 109.
Urban does leave open the likelihood that Williams could take over the CB2 job, which might presumably leave Murphy-Bunting as the first slot man. Like SMB, Williams is entering a platform campaign.