Darius Robinson is no longer a starter.
According to the team's first depth chart, the Arizona Cardinals have benched the former first-round pick in favor of Dante Stills.
It's a move we called earlier last week , though still a bit surprising given Robinson's status as a first-round pick entering his third season.
Robinson has largely failed to live up to the billing as a defensive lineman - practically every training camp is full of highlights of Robinson living in the backfield, though preseason and regular season have been a different story.
Perhaps that's unfair to Robinson, who dealt with early injuries and off-field loss during his rookie season. Or maybe this is a vote of confidence in Stills, who has largely been one of the more consistent players in the trenches. Hopefully next is a contract extension .
Robinson is built like a Greek statue and surely still has something to offer, though ahead of his third season, the Cardinals sent a clear message to the former top pick by placing Stills ahead of him.
Other notable depth chart moves:
Williams made a surprisingly early return from his Achilles injury, being activated from the PUP list and practicing with the Cardinals in the last few weeks. However, Arizona listed Williams behind all of Max Melton, Will Johnson and Denzel Burke.
This is presumably due to health, as the Cardinals may want to ease Williams back into action. Arizona chose not to have him remain on PUP, which in turn would have seen him miss the first four games of the season.
This could be another case of the Cardinals just wanting to ease players returning from injury to action.
Love suffered a high ankle sprain during preseason and hasn't fully practiced with the team in weeks. Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur was optimistic on Love playing this week, though it's clear Allgeier will shoulder much of the workload to begin the season.
It's very likely Gibbens and Simon will both play, as LaFleur said their utilization will heavily depend on what the game plan is on the week. However, it's interesting to note Simon was logging majority of first team reps through majority of the offseason before Gibbens arrived strong at the end.
It was enough to convince the Cardinals he's the starter - at least this week. Arizona now has a pair of athletic linebackers who can drop into coverage in Gibbens and Mack Wilson Sr.
Oftentimes teams will place "or" between two players to signify both are capable as starters and it simply depends on the week. With that established, there's only one "or" on the Cardinals' depth chart (there were four on their final preseason depth chart).
That belongs at outside linebacker between Zaven Collins and Baron Browning. Collins is traditionally more suited to stop the run while Browning is their go-to option opposite Josh Sweat on obvious passing downs.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/cardinals/onsi as Cardinals Bench Former First-Round Pick, Plus More Surprises on Depth Chart .
