The Arizona Cardinals hosted free agent cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. for a visit on Thursday, reports ESPN’s Field Yates.
The 25-year-old was a second-round pick by the Los Angeles Chargers in 2021 but missed all but four games last season with a shoulder injury.
That was coming off his best season as a pro in 2023, when he posted 63 tackles with two interceptions and 14 passes defensed.
Arizona built stability at cornerback the past two years under head coach Jonathan Gannon, although without high-profile draft picks or free agents.
Slot man Garrett Williams took a massive leap forward in 2024 alongside second-year pro Starling Thomas V and 2024 offseason addition Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Max Melton, a rookie second-round pick last season, also played about 51% of the available snaps.
This isn’t the first time Asante Samuel Jr. was linked to the Arizona Cardinals
Samuel was in the sights of the Cardinals and former general manager Steve Keim in 2021 when he was coming out of Florida State.
“I love Asante Samuel (Jr.),” Keim told Arizona Sports before the draft. “A lot of people think he’s probably in the second round because he’s 5-(foot)-10, which they think automatically that’s probably a nickel or a slot corner, which diminishes their value … I don’t agree with that,” Keim said. “I think that he plays big, he can play outside, he can play inside.
“You can think back when we won a number of games here and the NFC West, we had a guy named Jerraud Powers playing corner who was 5-10. And there’s a number of players in the NFL who are 5-10 outside corners.”
Samuel has indeed spent most of his time outside, appearing in 2,853 snaps at a corner spot.