The Arizona Cardinals Are A Sneaky Contender | 2025 NFL Team Previews

The Arizona Cardinals Are A Sneaky Contender | 2025 NFL Team Previews

The Arizona Cardinals finished the 2024 season with an 8-9 record and missed the playoffs for the third straight year to the Harvard dancing into the end zone. Cardinals eliminated from the playoffs. It was an up and down year for the Cardinals as they were six and four entering their week 11 buy with a legitimate chance to win the division. They had five division games in their remaining seven and the path to the postseason was right in front of them. But unfortunately, they lost five of their remaining seven games as they would go just one and four in those five remaining division games with the lone win in this span coming over the 49ers in week 18 in a game that was started by Josh Dos. And there is McBride all alone. And I think the final seven game span was a good way to describe the 2024 Cardinal season. Not capitalizing on the opportunity when it was there. Whether it was getting swept by the Seahawks in two of their first three games off of the buy or blowing a 13-point second half lead to the Vikings sandwiched between the Seahawks losses or losing to the Panthers in overtime on the road in a game where they allowed over 240 yards rushing. You get the point. They had every opportunity to get to the postseason yet fell short. But the Arizona Cardinals were very active this off season. They improved the roster significantly and despite just missing the playoffs last year, they still won more than their overunder of seven wins last year. And I know the end of last year was frustrating, but the Arizona Cardinals are a very sneaky contender. This is a very, very good football team, but how far can they go in 2025? Well, we’re going to break everything down in today’s video. If you could like the video before we start, I would really appreciate it. And without further ado, let’s begin. And we are starting today’s video by discussing who the Cardinals brought in and who they lost this off seasonason and what their priorities were to get better as a team. And when discussing the Cardinals priorities this off seasonason, it starts with the philosophy that Jonathan Ganon and Monty Ozenfort have been striving towards over the past couple of years. And that is to be a team that runs the football well and gets after the quarterback on the defensive side of the football. They want to be the more physical and tough team. And with both West divisions, the AFC and NFC West, there’s a lot of teams that are very similar. The Chargers, Seahawks, Raiders, and Cardinals, more or less all want to do the same thing, just with a few different spices and ingredients here and there. And I know the Cardinals in theory overachieved last year by winning more games than they were projected. But I would argue it was a disappointing season for Arizona based on how their season ended. The playoffs were right in front of them and they lost five of their final seven games, four of which were in the division. They also finished 25th in yards per carry allowed as well as tying for 27th in EPA per rushing play defensively. And with how Jonathan Ganon wants to win games, which is again to get ahead and get after the quarterback, I don’t think it should be a surprise that they went out and spent $105 million to bring in Josh Sweat and Dvin Tomlinson in free agency. We’ve discussed how smart front offices are in the past in today’s era, and what matters is the guarantees within contracts. So even in the worst case, Arizona is protected if both players do not work out. They also brought back Kias Campbell and drafted Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolan in the first round. Now, we’ll get to Walter Nolan later, but the point is Arizona knew entering the off season that in order to ever win this division, and in order to be taken seriously, you have to stop the run. You are not going to get out of the NFC West if you cannot consistently stop the run. Now, the Cardinals did have some players leave in free agency, and that is to be expected from every team in today’s era, but I don’t think any of the players they lost are going to be significant losses by any means. They lost veteran Dennis Gard, who had been with the team since 2018. They lost defensive tackle Roy Lopez, who had spent the past two years with the Cardinals, and they lost guys like Kyrie Tanga, Naquin Jones, and Zack Pascal, too. My point is, Arizona didn’t lose too much in free agency, at least relative to the guys they brought in. Roy Lopez signed the biggest contract out of any of these players and it was only a one-year $3.5 million deal. And if that’s all you lose in free agency, you’re doing a pretty good job running the football team. I think it is worth noting linebacker Kaiser White and guard Will Hernandez are technically still free agents at the time of this video release. The Cardinals could not get after the quarterback last year and to bring in both Josh Sweat and Walter Nolan in one off season is a sign they are going in the right direction. And whenever manzenfort and Jonathan Ganon took over a couple of years ago, you knew it was going to be a long-term rebuild and that it was not going to be an overnight fix. But credit to Ozen Fort with the way he has constructed his roster at this point as the Cardinals only have 7.4 million in deadcat money entering 2025, which ranks 30th in the NFL. There’s teams that go into every year or attempt to go in and have 40, 50, 60, or 70 million of dead cap money and think they are legitimately competing for a Super Bowl. And obviously that limits what they’re going to be able to do when free agency rolls around. But the Cardinals have taken a lot of steps in the right direction over the past few years. And I thought they did a good job of supplementing their roster through free agency this off season. Now for the defensive side of the football, I think this will be a unit that has a solid base with a lot more potential than the national media realizes. The Cardinals don’t really get a lot of love nationally as it is and especially their defense. But I like where this unit is headed and where the vision of this team is for that matter, too. But when you look at how teams are constructed, a lot of the time head coaches build their teams very similar to where they previously coached. And there’s a reason for that. Whenever a new coordinator is becoming a head coach, it’s because they have had a lot of success and are now receiving a promotion. They work handinhand with the previous head coach, and a lot of the time their vision aligns. And the reason we bring this up is because Jonathan Ganon came from Philly and the 2022 Eagles were built on pass rush and the Cardinals traded for Baron Browning during the middle of the 2024 season. And Browning was solid for the Cardinals when he played last year. I was also really high on 2023 second round pick BJ Ojelari. And unfortunately, he tore his ACL in August of 2024 and his second season was over before it started. But now that we’re entering 2025, the Cardinals have guys like Josh Sweat, Baron Browning, BJ O Gelari, second-year player Darius Robinson, and rookie Walter Nolan to get after the quarterback. It was critical the Cardinals signed a big run stuffing defensive tackle like Dvin Tomlinson while getting better at what Ganon wants to do defensively, which is have multiple pass rushers be able to win and consistently win. But one of the biggest things for the Cardinals this off season was raising the floor of the run defense to the point where they can consistently get in third and sixes and third and sevens and be able to use all of those guys to get home when it matters. I do have a few concerns with the Cardinals defense this year, most notably with Justin Jones and Hakee Davis Gaither as I never liked the Justin Jones signing to begin with as I thought he was overpaid for who he is as a player and unfortunately he suffered a season ending injury for the Cardinals last year. And I also think Hakee Davis Gaither is a placeholder for the time being before Arizona finds a true long-term solution at the middle linebacker position. But if those guys can play at or close to an average level, then I do think this front seven will be good enough to more than keep Arizona in every game. I think Josh Sweat is a really solid player, but I don’t think he’s an elite player, and I don’t know many who do. But with where this defense is, they should have multiple guys have 40 plus pressures for them this year, which would be a huge step up from the zero players they had with 40 pressures last year. And obviously in turn, that will help out the secondary that is of course led by the seventime pro bowler Buddha Baker. Overall, the secondary was pretty healthy last year and we obviously hope that continues in 2025. But this unit is not bad. I do think when we talk about complimentary football that this especially applies to a team like the Arizona Cardinals who could not rush the passer last year. I think corner Garrett Williams is a pretty underrated player. And I hope Will Johnson works out because if he does then we have a really really good secondary here of Will Johnson, Buddha Baker, even Jaylen Thompson who has quietly become a really solid player for the Cardinals since being a UDFA back in 2019 and of course Garrett Williams. My biggest thing with the Cardinals defense this year is being able to consistently get home, which I believe they will be able to do and be able to do an adequate job of stopping the run. I believe in Jonathan Ganon and Monty Ozenfort, and I believe in the team they’re building. And when you look at this defense truly, what is the weak link? Are they going to be perfect? No. No team is. But more often than not, I’m going to bet on the Arizona Cardinals being able to do a good enough job as a unit to keep them in games and to be able to keep points off the board. And this is a very sneaky defense. entering 2025. Now, for the Arizona Cardinals 2025 rookie impact, I’ll be honest, I think their rookie impact has one of the highest variances of any team in the NFL for a couple of reasons. It has a lot to do with the fact that they selected a defensive tackle and a corner with their first two selections. And obviously, both of those positions are extremely important. And you look at a team like the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles who had really dominant interior defensive line play as well as good corner play led by 2024 firstrounder Quinan Mitchell. But not every interior defensive lineman is going to come in and be Jaylen Carter or Aaron Donald or Quinn Williams or Dexter Lawrence right from the start. And even Quinn Williams had a bit of time to adjust to the NFL level. And I do believe Quinn was a better prospect back in 2019 than I do think Walter Nolan was this year coming out of Miss. Now, with Walter Nolan specifically, I think he will be a really, really good NFL player over the course of his career. I always just worry about defensive linemen and specifically interior defensive linemen because instead of going up against collegiate players every Saturday the way they did for the past couple of years, they’re now going up against grown men NFL players that have been in the league for anywhere from 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 years and obviously know all the tricks of the trade. So there typically is a transition period for defensive lineman that is a lot longer than other positions like receiver or even running back on the offensive side of the football. And obviously that same concept applies to Will Johnson, their second round pick as defending collegiate receivers every Saturday and guys like from Purdue or Minnesota or Wisconsin are a lot different than going up against guys like Jackson Smith the Jigba and Puka Nakua and Brandon Iuk six times a year and you get the point. So, having said all of that, I do think the Cardinals have a high variance of what they could expect from their rookies this year. Now, it is absolutely worth noting that I had Walter Nolan as player 15 on my top 150 big board and that I had Will Johnson at player 20 on my top 150 big board. In terms of value, I thought the Cardinals did a tremendous job and especially with Will Johnson as they selected him at player 47. And the biggest thing with Will Johnson, not just in 2025, but really in 26 and 2072, over the course of the next two or three years, is health. Now, with corner Will Johnson, there’s a couple of things that have to be noted. In 2023, he was a vital part to the Michigan Wolverines team that won the 2024 National Championship. He was an elite corner prospect entering the 2024 season. And I honestly think his tape in 2023 was up there with corners over the past couple of years like Sauce Gardner and Dererick Stingley and Jeff Akuda and Pat Certan and JC Horn and that he was right up there with those guys and that if he was healthy, he would have been a top 10 pick in this class. That’s how talented he was. But I think it is worth noting with billion-dollar organizations, not just $1 billion, but multiple billion-dollar organizations that have the research to be able to look into these things and project what they think is going to be Will Johnson in the next couple of years, that there was probably a reason he fell to the middle of the second round despite pretty undeniably being a top 10 talent in this class when healthy. Now, obviously, I’m not a doctor. I don’t claim to be a doctor, but I did at least want to note that with Will Johnson specifically. Now, where the Cardinals draft class to me, I thought went a little off the rails. Not entirely, but a little off trajectory was when they selected Jordan Burch in the third round. I didn’t dislike Jordan Bur as a prospect. I just thought the value was a little rich. And I also thought he struggled as a run defender, at least compared to somebody else like Josiah Stewart, a pass rusher from Michigan, who I thought was a better prospect than Bur overall. And I had him about 25 spots higher in my top 150. And we’ll see how those players careers pan out. I just thought Josiah Stewart would have matched what the Cardinals were trying to do better, especially with the emphasis of stopping the run the way that they really emphasized that this offseason. Now, why I think the Cardinals have such a high variance in terms of what we could see from the rookies, is there’s a reality where Walter Nolan comes in and struggles at the NFL level. Because despite being the number one player in the 2022 class, he did not perform all that well in the first two years of his collegiate career before really breaking out in 2024 with Miss. And there’s a reality where that also happens to him again at the NFL level. And this portion is specifically for the rookie impact. So I don’t think that the Cardinals 2025 class is going to be dud after dud. And I actually really like their class for the long run. I just think that there’s a reality where Walter Nolan is not that impactful of a player as a rookie. And I also want it to be noted that he is in a favorable situation for him personally to succeed again in the long run. But transitioning from the collegiate level to the NFL level in the trenches is extremely difficult. And that concept also applies to Will Johnson. So we are looking at a scenario where the Cardinals could have Walter Nolan and Will Johnson both struggle in their rookie year and then have their rookie impact be left to guys like Jordan Burch and Cody Simon and everyone else that they drafted and even corner Denzel Burke who was not as good of a prospect as Will Johnson. And this all plays into why I think the Cardinals rookie impact is an extremely high variance relative to some other NFL teams. Now, the middle rounds between three through five a lot of the time are about finding role players early on that can hopefully develop into starters as their rookie contract progresses. And I think that there is a real scenario where Cody Simon comes in and is a good runto stopping linebacker at least in the early downs and then hopefully he can develop over the course of the next two or three years for the 2025 Cardinals rookie impact. I think a successful year would look something like Walter Nolan having anywhere from four to six sacks along with a 30 to 35 pressure rookie season. Will Johnson playing at an average or above average level along with two or three interceptions. Because one thing that I will say positively about Will Johnson is when he gamles, he gamles correct more often than not. He did not allow a touchdown in the final two years of his collegiate career. And that again his bottom line as to who he is as a player is going to come down to health because he was a top 10 player in this class when healthy. And that’s the biggest thing with him and with Jordan Burch. Again, I wouldn’t expect that much with him individually in 2025 because I think he will have a very exclusive designated pass rushing role. And honestly, there’s going to be a lot of players above him on the depth chart. So, a successful season for him would probably look something like 10 to 12 pressures, maybe with a sack and a half or two, and go from there in 2026. I don’t think the Cardinals 2025 rookie impact is going to be all that much unless Will Johnson comes in and plays like the 2023 Will Johnson, but that’s fine because I really like where this class’s long-term vision is and what Monty Ozenfor did throughout the 25 draft. Now, with the 2025 Cardinals offense, this is a unit I’m really excited to talk about and a unit that I think has really, really high potential entering the year. For every running back that had a great year last year, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Bejian Robinson. Honestly, I even almost forgot about Jamir Gibbs to give you an idea of how many running backs had great years last year. It is not talked about obviously because they were an 8-9 team and that they missed the playoffs, but James Connor had over 1,500 total yards last year. The Cardinals finished ninth in rushing DVOA as a team. And with James Connor coming back, who by the way has had a great career revival in the desert along with a player who I think will break out this year in second-year player Trey Benson, this is going to be a very fun offense. Obviously, the Cardinals still have Marvin Harrison Jr., Trey McBride and of course Michael Wilson to throw the football to, but this unit is really good all around and there’s not a lot of weak links. Now, the one weak link that I will acknowledge is offensive coordinator Drew Petting is there’s so many times where the Cardinals will find themselves in third and seven or third and eight situations that were often largely created by Drew Petting. Whether it was a screen on first down and a run that didn’t get a lot on second down or vice versa, you get the point. That is one thing that I think can hold back this offense this year. But in terms of overall talent, I really like where the 2025 Cardinals offense is and ultimately where I think they can be by season’s end. Paris Johnson is also one of not just the most underrated tackles, but one of the most underappreciated players in all of football for that matter, too. If everything goes according to plan, the 2025 Cardinals offense should finish top 10 in a lot of categories and really top 12 at worst because this is a really, really talented unit. Now, we did a video a couple of months ago at this point discussing some of my concerns with the Cardinals offense and it revolves around the inconsistencies of quarterback Kyler Murray and also Drew Petting along with that too. Now, whenever you talk about either Kyler Murray or Drew Petting, and this doesn’t apply to just those two, but it applies to several other teams for that matter, usually there’s one side that wants to say it is definitively either Drew Petting’s fault or it is definitively Kyler Murray’s fault. And one thing that we regularly hammer home on the channel is that very rarely is it one specific individual’s fault. Usually there is shared blame in pretty much everything. But one thing that cannot be disputed is how inconsistent Kyler is on a game-to-ame basis. He had a great game against the Rams last year in week two. The Cardinals put up 41 points. Kyler had just four incomp completions and threw three passing touchdowns and looked like an MVP for that 60 minutes of football. But the ensuing 14 games, Kyler was not the same player. He had 13 touchdowns to just 11 interceptions. And the Cardinals did go six and eight. I don’t want to get too much into the quarterback record in that discussion, but Kyler had 13 touchdowns to 11 interceptions in that 14ame span. And then finished the year with a very good game against the 49ers, in which a lot of backups played, in which Kyler threw four passing touchdowns. And whenever you have seven of your 21 passing touchdowns in a week 2 game against the LA Rams, who by the way were a pretty injured team early in the year, some people forget how injured the Rams were at the beginning of the year because of how their season ended. And then your week 18 game against the 49ers, who were by every definition out and had nothing to play for at that point in the year. Well, that’s not really a good sign of where you are as a player because again, Kyler can have those flashes for 60 minutes or even two or three games where he looks like a really highc caliber player and a guy that belongs in those top seven or eight discussions, but more often than not, you get into the middle chunks of the year and Kyler shows really where he is as a player, which is between that quarterback 13 through 17. And that is one of my biggest fears for the 2025 Cardinals. But one reason I think you can legitimately buy in with the 2025 Cardinals, and by buy in I mean going to the playoffs and maybe maybe winning a playoff game, not going to the Super Bowl, but maybe win a playoff game, is because in a lot of ways this is a now or never gear for Kyler Murray. Remember Jonathan Ganon and Monty Ozen for inherited Kyler and obviously he was a big lure to taking the job. But over Kyler’s past 36 games, which dates back to the start of the 2022 season, he’s thrown just 45 touchdowns to 23 interceptions in the 36 games that he’s played. So obviously, he has not been an MVP caliber quarterback since the start of the 2022 season and really for that matter at any point in his career. But Kyler is entering a year in his contract where it’s largely going to determine whether or not the Cardinals pay Kyler in 2027 and beyond or whether or not they kind of want to sit around the pick 16, 18, or 20 area depending on where they’re selecting in the 2026 draft and maybe trade a 26 first and a 27 first to go up and get a quarterback in the 26 class because of how loaded that quarterback class is with guys like Kate Clubnick, Drew Aller, Lenora Cers, potentially Arch Manning, and you get the point. It’s a very loaded class and there’s a scenario where if Kyler does not perform this year that the Cardinals more or less try and find his replacement and because of that I think you can legitimately convince yourself that you’re going to see the best Kyler Murray we’ve seen to date in 2025 especially with a supporting Cass he has around him from a run game standpoint and from a player who I think will break out this year and go for over a thousand yards in 2024 firstrounder Marvin Harrison Jr. and with Marvin Harrison Jr. This applies to kind of the world that we live in where everybody once takes more than they ever have before. And it’s really frustrating to see people say that Marvin Harrison Jr. is a draft disappointment just one year in, especially in a year where he had 885 yards and eight receiving touchdowns. This was not a player that had a 350 yard rookie season and one or two touchdowns over the course of a 17game season. There was a lot of meat left on the bone for Marvin Harrison last year. And I went through and watched every route that he ran about a month ago and honestly re-watched a little bit for the sake of the 2025 Cardinals video and there’s absolutely no reason to think that he can’t go for over a thousand yards this year, maybe even 11 or,200 yards. He’s a very very talented player and if we see Kyler Murray in a contract year get Marvin Harrison Jr. football the way that he should then Marvin should break out this year and be the player that he was expected to be coming out of Ohio State. For anyone who wants to dunk, yes, left hand up. I had Marvin as my number one player in the 2024 class. Arvin is an elite prospect. He is the best receiving prospect I’ve ever evaluated and will stand by that he was the best receiver I’ve ever evaluated. I think it’s a matter of time until he becomes a consistent 1000y player and hope that that is the start this year. Trey McBride is one of the best tight ends in football, and I’m kind of saying this in a joking way, but I do hope that he finds the end zone more this year than he did last, as that was frustrating for not just Cardinals fans, but really everyone knowing a player as good as Trey McBride is just couldn’t get into the end zone last year. That is something that I also think will change in 2025. And I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the Cardinals have a 10,00 rusher in either James Connor or Trey Benson. And to have not only one, but two 10,000 receivers in Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. Because remember, McBride went for over 1,000 last year. James Connor went for over 1,000 last year. And like we said, Harrison Jr. had 885 yards with what I thought was a lot of meat left on the bone. Overall, this offense should be really good. And as long as there is competent play calling from Drew Petting more often than not, and as long as Kyler can find a little bit more consistency in what some ways is kind of a contract year, but not exactly, but kind of a contract year based on whether or not the Cardinals are going to pay him in 2027 and beyond rather than going up and getting at a quarterback this year. I think there’s a really good chance that the Cardinals overperform their preseason expectations and find a way into the 2025 playoffs. The biggest thing with the 2025 Cardinals is being able to win close games and to be able to get after the quarterback when it matters, which is not something they were able to do consistently in 2024. Overall, I think this is one of the most improved teams from 2024 to 2025. And I really can’t wait to see how they play this year. I hope you enjoyed, and if you did, please like the video and subscribe as only about 41% of people watching are subscribed and helps the channel tremendously. We’re closing in on 200,000 subscribers, and I cannot thank you guys enough for the support. And until next time, please be safe and have a great day. Love you guys.

The Arizona Cardinals Are A Sneaky Contender | 2025 NFL Team Previews

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