Last offseason, the Arizona Cardinals made a deal that made quite a bit of sense in retrospect. They send wide receiver Rondale Moore to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for quarterback Desmond Ridder.
When we look back, it ended up being a nothing for both teams.
At the time, it looked like a smart move. After three underwhelming seasons, it looked like the Cardinals were moving on from Moore and going to give Greg Dortch the role he had on the offense. So Moore would have been in danger of being cut later in the season.
The Cardinals needed an upgrade at backup quarterback that didn’t cost too much. Ridder, who had started 17 games and played remarkably mediocre in those starts, going 8-9, gave the Cardinals more experience than Clayton Tune, who was entering his second NFL season and looked as bad as any quarterback ever has in the one start he had as a rookie.
Ridder was likely going to be cut at some point after the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins and then drafted Michael Penix, although that didn’t happen until after Ridder was traded away.
But the deal didn’t work out for either team.
Moore suffered a serious leg injury before the season and missed the entire year. He will be a free agent, so they didn’t get a single snap from him.
The Cardinals didn’t get a single snap from Ridder, either.
Tune outplayed him in training camp and the preseason, so Ridder was cut, although he did spend several weeks on the practice squad before he was signed by the Las Vegas Raiders and eventually even started a game.
So at least the Cardinals got some scout team help from Ridder.
Because they didn’t give up anything of value, neither the Cardinals nor Falcons really lost the trade, but neither certainly won the trade.
It was the most nothing trade the Cardinals have made in a while.
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