Winners, losers from Arizona Cardinals preseason finale vs. Las Vegas Raiders

A week after an ugly, sloppy, disheartening performance in Denver, the Arizona Cardinals wrapped up their preseason in much more encouraging fashion.

In a 20-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders at State Farm Stadium, the Cardinals' depth pieces played a far more competent game this week — although it’s worth noting that they used even fewer important players.

Against the Bronocs, only the starters and the most important bench players rested. This week, they were without 33 healthy players.

The only starter to play was rookie cornerback Will Johnson, which Gannon said was the plan entering preseason. It was a notable change in usage from last preseason, when Marvin Harrison Jr. played just three preseason snaps before struggling in his regular-season debut.

"A change that I felt like we needed to make going into this year," Gannon said. "That was one of the things in camp, talking with the coordinators and (general manager Monti Ossenfort). Get these rookies a little more reps. I'm looking in the past now so I'm gonna get depressed but probably a mistake by me, truthfully, first two years. So we wanted to correct that."

Despite the lack of work for the Cardinals' starters, there were still plenty of lessons to be learned from their final game before the season opener in New Orleans. Here are the winners and losers:

Winners

Jordan Burch

Every year, there seems to be a player who emerges as the Cardinals' star of the preseason. This month, it’s been Burch, the edge rusher whom they drafted in the third round this spring.

How much that means when the season arrives is an open question, but Burch has likely earned himself more Week 1 snaps with his recent performances.

In the first two preseason games, he consistently got into opposing backfields, but both his sacks were negated by penalties. This week, he finally got on the stat sheet and provided the Cardinals with their defensive highlight of the game.

Midway through the first quarter, he used his size and strength to run directly through backup right tackle Thayer Munford and collapse the pocket. That forced quarterback Aidan O’Connell to escape to his left, where Burch hit him from behind for a strip sack. His old high school teammate, Xavier Thomas, fell on the ball to set up the Cardinals' opening touchdown.

"As a whole," Gannon said. "I thought we affected the quarterback like we needed to."

Michael Carter

Earlier this week, Carter made a loud declaration that he believes he deserves a roster spot when the Cardinals make their cuts on Aug. 26.

“It's tough to be on the practice squad cause I know I'm good enough to play football every Sunday, Monday, Thursday night,” Carter said. “And I made plays, I made plenty of plays. So I don't question 'am I good enough' anymore. I question 'how do I get to the next level where I don't have to deal with that anymore?'”

Against the Raiders, Carter backed up those words. In the second quarter, he had a run that looked completely bottled up at the line of scrimmage, only to reverse course, find space down the left sideline and break away for 38 yards.

"Sometimes you gotta improvise," Carter said afterward.

It was the type of play Carter has made repeatedly in his time with the Cardinals. He’s only appeared in nine regular-season games over the past two years, but he’s made the most of his opportunities, with 4.9 yards per carry in those contests.

And ultimately, if the Cardinals' final running back spot comes down to Carter or Emari Demercado, it was Carter who seized his last opportunity to make an impression. He finished with 47 yards on five carries.

"He can tote the rock," Gannon said.

Simi Fehoko

On a roster that lacks proven depth at wide receiver, Fehoko has made a strong preseason impression. He had a touchdown catch on an excellent seam route against the Broncos, then followed that up by getting open in the corner of the end zone for the Cardinals' first touchdown against the Raiders.

The Cardinals young depth options at receiver have struggled in both training camp and preseason, but Fehoko's emergence should give them slightly more confidence if any starting receivers miss time in the regular season.

"He's been awesome, man," Gannon said. "He can play all three spots, he makes plays in practice, catches the ball and he can play on fourth down. He had a hell of a camp and a preseason."

Guys who didn’t play

As usual in the preseason, the real winners were those who didn’t play.

Last week, those were players like Trey Benson, Tip Reiman and Dante Stills. By resting them against the Broncos, Jonathan Gannon revealed that they are in line for significant regular-season snaps.

This week, it was backups like center Jon Gaines, defensive tackle L.J. Collier and linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither. Those players might not have major roles — at least not early in the season — but they seemingly have their roster spots secured.

Losers

Denzel Burke

The Raiders played their starters for one drive, on which they marched 60 yards for a touchdown in just nine plays. On that drive, they consistently took advantage of Burke, who also struggled against the Broncos. He was beaten for two completions — including a jump-ball touchdown — and committed a pass interference going through the back of a receiver.

As a fifth-round rookie cornerback, this learning curve was to be expected. And like the rest of the rookie class, Burke has had his encouraging moments throughout camp.

But for the Cardinals, his struggles reveal a bigger problem. After losing Sean Murphy-Bunting and Starling Thomas V to season-ending ACL injuries, their cornerback depth is concerningly thin. If either Johnson or Max Melton misses time, their primary options at outside cornerback will be Burke or Kei’Trel Clark, who has never been able to establish himself as an above-average contributor.

The other option would be to slide Garrett Williams to the outside corner full-time and insert Dadrion Taylor-Demerson as the nickel corner, but that would remove Williams from a role in which he excels.

Clayton Tune

It was a brutal preseason for Tune. Although he made some nice plays with his legs in the finale, he finished the preseason with just 186 passing yards on 49 attempts — good for just 3.8 yards per attempt.

Even before preseason began, Tune was a long shot to make the roster. Jacoby Brissett was entrenched as Kyler Murray’s backup, and the Cardinals typically do not carry three quarterbacks. But his three performances this month did little to change the calculus.

The Cardinals could look to add a new practice squad quarterback this week, depending on which players are cut by other teams. If not, Tune will serve in that role.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Winners, losers from Arizona Cardinals preseason finale vs. Raiders