Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort called it a “culmination.”

When the Cardinals drafted 6-foot-4, 238-pound defender Isaiah Simmons to play linebacker and safety with the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft, they didn’t expect his tenure to end this way.

But by trading Simmons to the Giants on Thursday for nothing but a 2024 seventh-round pick — after the talented defender played every game over the last three seasons — the team is essentially signaling they don’t believe he can help them anymore.

“We have talked to a lot of teams about different players,” Ossenfort said to the team’s website. “The situation presented itself [Thursday] morning and where we are as a team and where we are in camp, we felt like this is the right move for us to make.”

Simmons’ lackluster performance at the Cardinals’ most recent preseason game, in which he blew a few coverages and missed an easy tackle on Chiefs backup quarterback Shane Buechele at the goal line, was not the main driver of a trade.

“With all these decisions, it’s a culmination,” Ossenfort said. “We won’t make a snap judgment on one game or one play or anything like that. It’s a culmination of since we all got here, in the spring, in camp and a decision we came to, and not a reaction.”

The Cardinals had already sent a more subtle signal about their true feelings toward Simmons, deciding not to pick up his fifth-year option for 2024 in May following the first three years of his rookie contract.

Positional optimization may have also played a role in the Cardinals opting to jettison Simmons.

After new defensive coordinator Nick Rallis took over, he moved Simmons to safety for the majority of the time, which forced one of the defense’s best players, Jalen Thompson, to play more nickel than safety.

Simmons, who is owed $1.01 million for 2023, will become a free agent following the conclusion of this season.