Walter Nolen
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The Arizona Cardinals are hoping rookie defensive tackle Walter Nolen will be ready for the start of the season
When the Arizona Cardinals selected Walter Nolen with the 16th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the hope was that the disruption the rookie defensive tackle would bring to the field could help to transform the Cards into one of the league’s top defenses. Unfortunately, it’s only been Nolen’s first NFL training camp that has been disrupted thus far.
The former Ole Miss standout suffered a calf injury during the offseason, preventing him from having a full training camp and a preseason to adjust to life in the National Football League. At the time of the injury, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon could provide very little information about Walter Nolen’s prognosis, only saying that it was possible he could miss time into the regular season.
However, ahead of a joint practice with the Denver Broncos, Gannon was able to provide Cards fans with another update on the 21-year-old that the franchise is banking on becoming the anchor and centerpiece of their defense for years to come.
“He’s doing well, he’s progressing right where he should be progressing,” Gannon said, per Tyler Drake of Arizona Sports. “He hasn’t had any — I don’t want to say the word setback — but hasn’t had any setbacks. He’s progressing well.”
Now you don’t need me to tell you that this statement is light on details and still doesn’t provide a definitive timeline of when Nolen may get back onto the field. But the fact that he’s had no setbacks during his recovery is a promising sign, especially when considering just how banged up the Cardinals defense already is.
Promising Cardinals Defense Dealing With Plenty of Injuries
In addition to Nolen, who had been pegged to immediately receive reps in Arizona’s defensive line rotation, the Cardinals are also waiting forBilal Nichols andBJ Ojulari — who like Nolen are on the PUP list — to return from injuries. Nichols played only six games last season because of a neck injury, while Ojulari missed the entire 2024 campaign due to a torn ACL suffered during training camp.
Fortunately, the Cardinals devoted plenty of offseason resources to bolstering their defensive front, including signing Super Bowl standoutJosh Sweat to a four-year deal in the offseason and draftingJordan Burch out of Oregon in the 3rd Round of the NFL Draft.
Elsewhere on the defensive side of the ball, projected starting cornerbackStarling Thomas suffered atorn ACL early on in training camp, which will potentially thrust rookie defensive backsWill Johnson andDenzel Burke into early playing time in the secondary.
Cardinals Preseason Woes Have Jonathan Gannon on Edge
Even though the Cardinals departed their first preseason game of the year with a win last weekend, it wasn’t an overwhelmingly positive outing. Things only got worse this past weekend in the second preseason game of the summer.
Arizona was trounced by the Denver Broncos to the tune of a 27-7 defeat on August 16. After the game, Jonathan Gannon didn’t hide his dissatisfaction with his team’s effort.
“Got out-played tonight. That was obvious by the score,” Gannon said post-game. “Where I really thought that we need to do a lot better job, is our fundamentals from – really all three phases. So the basic fundamentals of football, I thought they did a lot better than us today. You lose the explosive play battle in the first half, I think it was 10-2, that’s a tough way to go.”
The Cardinals final preseason game of the year will be on August 23 when the Las Vegas Raiders come to town.