The Arizona Cardinals on Friday swung a trade to address a position of need.
The club acquired cornerback Marcus Cooper from the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for an undisclosed conditional pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Both teams announced the swap on Twitter.
The move makes sense for the Cardinals, who spent the preseason trying to groom a plug-and-play starter on the outside across from Pro Bowler Patrick Peterson.
Still, it's not a trade guaranteed to pay off. Entering his fourth season, Cooper started all 16 games as a seventh-round rookie in 2013 before seeing his playing time trail off since. He was often inactive last season and loomed as a potential cut for the Chiefs all summer.
Cooper, however, brings depth to a secondary that lost veteran cornerback Mike Jenkins to an ACL tear and fellow cover man Alan Ball to a quadriceps injury.
Rookies Brandon Williams and Cariel Brooks both struggled for stretches on Thursday against the Broncos, leaving the door open for Cooper to fight for playing time. Look for 2015 All-Pro Tyrann Mathieu to man the slot, with coach Bruce Arians saying that the uber-talented defender -- returning from another ACL injury -- will be "ready to roll" for Week 1.
"I thought Brandon got better, but he's still got problems looking back at the quarterback when he's playing man-to-man," Arians said, per the team's official website. "The guys who are going to play next Sunday night (against the Patriots), I have all the confidence in the world in them."
The Cardinals have strength and talent on both sides of the ball, but cornerback remains a hot-button issue. With that in mind, this might not be the last roster tweak out of Arizona, with Arians saying: "There are a lot of things that can happen in the last 24 hours."
