{"id":284326,"date":"2026-05-23T09:45:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=284326"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:25:24","slug":"trey-benson-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/05\/23\/trey-benson-trade-rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Trey Benson Trade Rumors: New Cardinals Regime Could Move RB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trey Benson entered the league with high expectations, but the Arizona Cardinals’ former third-round pick has not managed to reach his potential. Selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft<\/a>, the Florida State product looked like the heir apparent to veteran James Conner. While Conner was still the unquestioned starter in 2024, Benson finally had his opportunity in 2025. Conner suffered a season-ending injury early in the season, giving Benson the opportunity to show what he could do with a larger workload.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Trey Benson could not make the most of the opportunity. The running back only made one start in Conner’s absence before suffering a season-ending injury of his own. In total, he played just four games while recording 29 carries for 160 yards and no touchdowns. Since then, the team fired former head coach Jonathan Gannon, brought in a new regime led by Mike LaFleur<\/a>, signed veteran Tyler Allgeier<\/a>, and used the third-overall pick on Jeremiyah Love<\/a>. As if that wasn’t enough, Conner is back from his injury and will likely stay on the roster, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n

This is one long way of saying that Trey Benson has no clear path to the field. LaFleur didn’t draft him, which means he’s likely the third or fourth running back on the depth chart. Running back is an injury-prone position, but it’s hard to envision Arizona keeping him around with all the depth ahead of him. While they won’t cut him, they could try to trade him to a team that still believes in his natural abilities.<\/p>\n

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Arizona Cardinals Could Trade Trey Benson Following Running Back Logjam<\/h2>\n

It will be interesting to see what kind of market exists for Trey Benson. On the one hand, he is a former third-round pick who has shown some signs of life at the professional level. Yards per carry is far from the best stat in the world, but his 5.5 average last season is still an impressive figure, even if it came in a small sample. If any team believes he can maintain this level of efficiency with a higher workload, they could send a late-round pick for his services.<\/p>\n

With that disclaimer out of the way, Benson’s lack of consistent work is a glaring red flag. The best ability is availability, and Trey Benson has yet to prove he’s capable of earning a high workload and surviving the physical punishment that comes with the job description. Additionally, it’s a little concerning that he couldn’t earn more touches before Conner’s injury. James Conner is a good running back<\/a>, but he shouldn’t be good enough to prevent a third-round pick from recording more than 63 touches as a rookie.<\/p>\n

If anyone was going to trade for Trey Benson, it probably would have happened during the 2026 NFL Draft. The Cardinals selected Love with the third-overall pick, so they had plenty of time to shop Benson throughout the three-day affair. Seeing as nobody made a move for the running back, it’s safe to assume he doesn’t have much of a market, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n

Future In Arizona<\/h3>\n

Love and Allgeier are firmly entrenched atop the depth chart, which means Conner and Benson are likely fighting for one roster spot. As of this posting, it’s safe to assume that Conner has the inside track for the job. He was the better running back in each of the past two seasons and, assuming he’s healthy, is probably still the better option, even under a new coaching staff. Additionally, he currently carries a $4.83 million cap hit, and the Cardinals would take on $4.35 million in dead money if they release him. With no financial reason to let him go, Trey Benson will likely be the odd man out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trey Benson could be on the trade block, as the new coaching regime may not be impressed with the veteran’s two unremarkable seasons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":268753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7801,32160],"class_list":["post-284326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arizona-cardinals-news","tag-trey-benson"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284326"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284627,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284326\/revisions\/284627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}