Not long after making Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen the 16th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon used just one word to describe what he expected Nolen’s impact on Arizona’s defense would be.
“Disruption,” Gannon said, according to Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com. “We’ve talked about it a lot. We wanted to have a more disruptive defensive unit. We think we’ve added players that can help us do that. Walter is another guy that we think can help us do that.”
But as the Cardinals and the rest of the NFL approached the beginning of mandatory minicamps, Nolen was one of seven 1st Round picks who remained unsigned heading into the month of June. But before Nolen officially became the wrong kind of disruption, the 21-year-old rookie signed on the dotted line, inking a four-year, $19.3 million deal with a $10.7 million signing bonus, according to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter.
Nolen is one of a handful of new faces on an Arizona Cardinals defense that projects to be improved from last season. Along with 2024 1st Round selection Darius Robinson, veterans Calais Campbell, Dalvin Tomlinson, Bilal Nichols, Justin Jones and newly signed defensive end Josh Sweat, Arizona has effectively beefed up in the trenches. And in the secondary, a pair of former Big Ten rivals – Will Johnson and Denzel Burke – arrive with expectations of being early contributors.
But of all the new faces, it’s Nolen who likely presents the highest upside both in the short-term and the long-term.
“He’s a violent, disruptive, high motor, tenacious, three-down player,” Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said of Nolen after the NFL Draft. “It is hard to find those guys that can affect the pocket from the interior of the formation.”
Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
