As the Arizona Cardinals play the final game of the regular season, they will be doing it with an offensive line playing its fourth consecutive game together, but that is also one of eight different combinations utilized this season. Nine different players have started games.

This will be the third start of left tackle Josh Fryar’s career, the fourth for left guard Jon Gaines II and 16th for right guard Isaiah Adams. Center Hjalte Froholdt, who played with a large brace on his injured left elbow last Sunday, has started every game this season, while Kelvin Beachum has started eight at right tackle and one at left tackle.

Froholdt is one of only five players on the roster to start every game and there has been only one other on offense: tight end Trey McBride. The three on defense are defensive linemen Calais Campbell and Dalvin Tomlinson and outside linebacker Josh Sweat.

Froholdt and Adams are the only ones on the current line who started the season opener. Left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and right tackle Jonah Williams are on injured reserve, while left guard Evan Brown will miss his fifth game dealing with a family matter.

That opening-day combination started a total of three games; one with Will Hernandez and the other four players started four. The other combos were left to right Johnson, Brown, Froholdt, Hernandez and Beachum for two games and four others with one game: Beachum, Brown, Froholdt, Adams and Williams; Johnson, Adams, Froholdt, Hernandez and Williams; Johnson, Brown, Froholdt, Hernandez and Beachum; and Johnson, Gaines, Froholdt, Adams and Beachum.

There was optimism when Hernandez returned to the field in Week 5 and for a brief period there appeared to be some improvement. But after playing virtually all of the snaps in the next four games, his surgical knee became an issue again, a hip problem was added to his injury status in Week 13 and he was placed on injured reserve Nov. 29.

While the offseason will be loaded with non-stop discussion about what the quarterback position will look like in 2026 no matter who is the head coach, it seems obvious that some heavy lifting on the line is necessary to compete at a high level in the NFL, especially in the six games against the rugged NFC West.

I’m always reminded of something Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said during Super Bowl week about 11 months ago. When Reid was head coach of the Eagles from 1999 to 2012, Roseman was building his personnel career, and then became the club’s vice president of player personnel in 2008, general manager in 2010, executive vice president of football operations in 2015 and added the GM title in 2019.

Roseman credited Reid with stressing to him the importance of building a team’s offensive and defensive lines. It is always said that game are won (or lost) in the trenches, yet collective amnesia sets in and when things go south, it seems the focus shifts to other supposed issues.

Reid said this about Roseman, “He believes in the offensive, defensive line. You start there and if they’re not functioning right, your team’s not functioning right. That’s the way he’s built that team and you can see that in their strengths there.”

Reid, of course, witnessed it firsthand in the Super Bowl when the Eagles defensive line dominated Kansas City’s short-handed offensive line and he and quarterback Patrick Mahomes had no answers in a resounding defeat.

Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort should take heed.

Consider what the Cardinals did for the line in the 2025 offseason. Not much.

They ran it back with Williams, who came to Arizona from Cincinnati in 2024 with a history of knee issues and then had two stints on injured reserve, playing only six games. They did the same with Brown, who did start all 17 games in 2024, and signed a two-year, $11.44 million contract with $6 million guaranteed.

He missed one game in Week 5 because of a hamstring injury, played the next week with that injury and then a foot issue in Week 11 before missing the final five games of the season dealing with a family issue.

The 36-year-old Beachum was brought back on a reasonable one-year, $3.44 million deal with a $1.5 million signing bonus, but Williams started only nine games before landing on IR again. Beachum started one game at left tackle when Johnson didn’t play in Week 3, played a lot of snaps in multiple as an extra blocker after blocking tight ends Tip Reiman and Travis Vokolek were placed on injured reserve on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15, respectively and closed the season with eight starts at right tackle. He was affected when playing in Weeks 11-14 with a groin injury.

The Cardinals also signed linemen Jake Curhan and Royce Newman to low one-year deals. Neither is now with the team. Center/guard Hayden was selected in the sixth round of the draft, but began the season on injured reserve and has played the last four games mostly on special teams while totaling 14 offensive snaps against the Houston Texans (three) and Atlanta Falcons (11).

Now, for a significant example, contrast that with what the Chicago Bears did in the 2025 offseason after they were 5-12 in 2024 and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked 68 times.

While bringing back left tackle Braxton Jones and right tackle Darnell Wright and selecting tackle Ozzy Trapilo in the second round of the draft, they totally revamped their interior line by signing center Drew Dalman as an unrestricted free agent and acquiring left guard Joe Thuney and right guard Jonah Jackson in trades, while redoing their contracts:

• Dalman: Three years, $42 million, $26,5 million fully guaranteed.
• Thuney: Two-year extension. $35 million, $33.5 million fully guaranteed.
• Jackson: Three-year extension, $54.5 million, $24.5 million fully guaranteed.

That’s $84.5 million fully guaranteed.

Jones ended up going on injured reserve and Theo Benedet started the next six games. However, Trapilo has started the last six. Meanwhile, the three interior guys have started all 16 games, while Wright missed one start in Week 4.

Not surprisingly, very few hear the Bears being applauded for those moves as analysts fall over themselves anointing Williams and first-year head coach Ben Johnson. They obviously deserve praise, but would the Bears be at this level without their line play? That question answers itself. After all, as one example, Williams has been sacked only 23 times in the first 16 games.

It goes without saying that Howie Roseman would be proud.

Hopefully, Ossenfort, or whoever is making the personnel choices going forward, is watching closely.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals need too address O-line