When Garrett Williams returned from his Achilles injury, it was a moment the Cardinals relished, given that the 2023 third-round pick had played well when healthy.
But after playing just eight defensive snaps in a win over Dallas, Williams was down to one defensive snap on Sunday in Seattle. The Cardinals instead are leaning into Kalen King, who was officially listed with 28 snaps against the Seahawks.
"Kalen is doing a really good job at nickel right now," LaFleur said. "We have a lot of trust in G and he's going to have another opportunity and when he gets that opportunity, he's going to be ready to roll."
There has been speculation that Williams, in the last year of his rookie contract, could be a trade candidate.
Denzel Burke returned to the starting lineup after two games in which Kei'Trel Clark started. Clark's snap percentage dropped to 37, his lowest since Week 4. Whatever the Cardinals did in the secondary it worked against Jaxon Smith-Njigba; they held the Seahawks star to only 51 yards on his seven catches. Smith-Njigba had been averaging 123 yards a game, and had a streak of 13 straight games of at least 70 yards.
Safety Budda Baker played only 62 of 67 snaps; he had only missed three snaps all season before Sunday and now linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. has surpassed Baker for most defensive snaps this season (565-564).
Fellow safety Rabbit Taylor-Demerson didn't play a defensive snap for a second straight game.
Cody Simon continues to get more work, getting a season-high 16 snaps at inside linebacker. At outside linebacker, Josh Sweat played 44 snaps, giving him back-to-back games with at least 40 snaps for the first time since Weeks 1 and 2 in 2025. Zaven Collins set season-highs in snaps (39) and snap percentage (58).
In his return from a ankle injury, defensive lineman Walter Nolen III played 41 snaps, his second-highest total of the season. L.J. Collier, meanwhile had his snaps drop from 48 to 26. And with nose tackle Roy Lopez going out with a toe injury and limiting him to 7 snaps, Andrew Billings played a season-high 32 snaps.
Offensively, the unit had a season-low 53 snaps.
Still, even with two healthy backs available behind him, Tyler Allgeier played all but two of those 53 snaps, surpassing the 48 snaps he played the week prior as his career-high.
Tight end Trey McBride was in for 44 snaps and his 83 percent was his second-lowest of the season. Elijah Higgins, on the other hand, played a season-high 66 percent of the time.
In the shuffled wide receiver room, Michael Wilson -- still dealing with his bad ribs -- had season-lows in snaps (44) and snap percentage (83). Simi Fehoko played 49 percent of the snaps for a second straight week, the first time he's done that since he was with the Chargers in 2024. And Devin Duvernay played 45 percent, his highest total since doing so in 2024 with the Jaguars.
