Who Should I Start? Trey Benson or Jaleel McLaughlin

Wednesday, July 29, 5:36 AM

The pads have come on at Arizona Cardinals training camp, and Arizona Sports' Tyler Drake believes that third-year running back Trey Benson could be falling perilously behind in the competition for meaningful work in 2026. The Cardinals bolstered their running back room this offseason through the free agent acquisition of Tyler Allgeier and the drafting of Jeremiyah Love with the third overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and the moves look to be paying early dividends. Allgeier has almost exclusively been the first back through positional drills, and Drake reports that Love has looked like the real deal in the early days of camp, standing out with his shiftiness and playmaking abilities. Even Bam Knight has surprised with some early highlights, while neither Benson nor veteran James Conner has taken part in full team drills, as they each work through the final stages of recovery from the injuries that ended their respective 2025 campaigns. Conner is a proven leader, and his place on the final roster would appear to be more secure after recently being singled out by offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, but for Benson, every day that he falls behind makes his future with the team that much murkier.