Arizona Cardinals to decline fifth-year option on Zaven Collins per Monti Ossenfort

The Arizona Cardinals will not be picking up the fifth-year option on Zaven Collins.

The Arizona Cardinals have not picked up a fifth-year option on a first round pick in quite some time.

That will continue as the last first round pick of the Steve Keim era, Zaven Collins will have his fifth-year option declined according to General Manager Monti Ossenfort.

This is not a shock based on Zaven’s play, where he struggled to make the leap from his Tulsa defense playing a 3-3-5 to a more traditional NFL based defense under Vance Joseph.

The new regime loves him, Jonathan Gannon gushes about his play and commitment, but picking up an edge rushing contract for a player who has 5.5 career sacks is not smart business.

It does not mean this is the end of Collins in Cardinal red, rather they want to see the continued progress and him to build on his first season as an edge defender.

We will see how that plays out, but this is not a shocking decision, but instead an unfortunate reminder of the Keim era.