Cardinals First-Rounder Slowly Increasing his Impact

The Arizona Cardinals are deep in the trenches of a lost season. Injuries have eaten away at what little hope there was of building any sort of positive momentum to end 2025.

And on Sunday, the Cardinals turned in another rough effort, losing 26-19 to the Atlanta Falcons in their final home game.

It hasn’t been the type of season anyone expected, both on an individual level and in terms of the team’s overall success. It’s been a tough ask of Cardinals fans to come out for blowouts, week after week. The few that do still show up haven’t been rewarded with wins, or even an entertaining product as the year winds down.

Even the ever-stoic Jonathan Gannon acknowledged the monotony of the 2025 season.

“I apologize, you guys, kind of the same answer, same story, where we’re at right now,” he said.

There’s little room to search for positivity or silver linings in this season. No one expects fans to do so. But for Cardinals struggling former first-round DL Darius Robinson, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel — and it showed up Sunday.

Cardinals’ Darius Robinson Slowly Making Progress

It’s been a truly brutal journey for the Missouri product. Robinson suffered a significant leg injury in his 2024 rookie season, then tragically lost his mother that year, as well. There was plenty of reason to justify a lack of results, and 2025 was viewed as an extension of a rookie year.

Unfortunately, that development still hadn’t manifested through most of 2025. The second-year DL has just one sack on eight pressures this season. It was eating away at Robinson.

“We’ve only won 3 games since September,” he told Darren Urban after the Cardinals’ loss to Tampa Bay. “That’s terrible. That starts with myself. I’m not who I thought I was.”

He wasn’t struggling with a confidence problem, but with so much raw potential, he also wasn’t satisfied with what he was putting out on the field. His 33.8 PFF grade (127th among 128 qualified DL) has mostly matched the eye test.

“I don’t want people to think I’m not confident,” Robinson said at the time. “It’s just the way you envision yourself and how you expected the season to go, and if it doesn’t match the results, then you will be frustrated. I think that’s all it is. But at the same time I have definitely grown from the beginning of the season to now and I still have five more weeks to keep growing.”

With a season that’s gone anything but according to plan, that should be the focus going forward. Growth — particularly of young players like Robinson — is one of the only things to keep a close eye on in these final weeks.

And Sunday’s game was a step in the right direction for Robinson. No, he didn’t earn a massive PFF grade or turn in a truly dominant performance, but he did force his way into the box score. The DL had seven tackles against the Falcons. Not only is that the most this season, it was his NFL single-game career high.

Robinson looked proficient (and more confident) in run defense, picked up a tackle for loss on a critical fourth down, and even recovered a fumble on another big fourth. It wasn’t the type of game to overreact to, but when a player has had difficulty making an impact in their young career, these types of games are what can snowball into an eventual impact-maker.

Gannon described Robinson’s day as “violent.”

“[He] played with good technique, good mode of play. I thought he was super productive,” Gannon said. “Yeah, it was one of his better games, I thought. He’s been on the trend up here this last month or so. And like I said, even if he doesn’t show up in a box score, I think he’s playing the right way right now. And doing his job at a pretty high level.”

It’s hard to sell to fans, but it’s a legitimate storyline to follow — especially with the news about Walter Nolen III going on IR after his knee injury Sunday. The players the Cardinals drafted to make an impact have had a hard time doing so. Any improvement in that department is quite welcome.

Robinson has always had the tools to be a top-end player, and it was clear he was frustrated with the results he was putting on the board. It won’t come as any consolation to fans in a 3-12 season — nor should it — but for a regime that had preached a draft-and-develop philosophy, it’s refreshing to see a step forward in a player’s development.

There is no room for moral victories, and there may not be room for this Cardinals regime to continue next season. All of that is legitimate concern. But on an individual level, these young players need confidence as they look to develop. It’s tough to gain confidence when wins are coming at a .200 clip.

But perhaps, at least for Robinson, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and potential begging to be realized.