Arizona Cardinals Receive Unpleasant News as GM Monti Ossenfort Addresses Free Agency Plans

The Arizona Cardinals have roughly $70 million in projected cap space entering this free agency period.

After two seasons under the guidance of general manager Monti Ossenfort, the Cardinals have slowly but steadily improved to position themselves to be spenders this free agency period after doubling their win total and narrowly missing the postseason in 2024.

It doesn’t exactly sound as if Arizona has dollar signs in their eyes, however.

When speaking with Arizona Sports this week, Ossenfort was asked about the team’s plans during free agency:

Doesn’t Sound Like Cardinals Want to Spend Money

“I think with everything, it has to be done with the right judgment,” Ossenfort told Bickley & Marotta (h/t Tyler Drake).

“Free agency is an overpay, it’s a market. … It’s tough because we can’t pick up the phone and call Team X and say, ‘Hey, tell me about this guy,’ because we don’t know if that team want to keep him or how they value him. There’s a lot of challenges that come with free agency. We’re going to be active in free agency — we absolutely are — but we’re going to be smart about it.

“We’re going to look at every avenue to improve the team, but we have to be smart about not only this year’s team as we build for the future and our own players that we’ve talked about that we want to extend. That all goes into it. It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Hey, let’s going on a shopping spree.’ It’s gotta be measured, it’s gotta be the right decision, it’s gotta be right for the team now and into the future.”

That’s probably not what Cardinals fans want to hear, especially after many were vocal about Arizona choosing to not spend money during the 2024 offseason.

With the Cardinals seemingly on the cusp of postseason contention, why not put some of that massive spending power to good use? Arizona has the fourth-highest amount of effective cap space according to OverTheCap.

If the Cardinals don’t want to overspend – which it sure sounds like they don’t – Ossenfort and co. may again find themselves looking for value players.