A Deep Dive Into The 2025 Arizona Cardinals
All right, let’s see if we can go two plus hours on the Arizona Cardinals without making a Call of Duty joke or a short joke. Challenge starts now. Welcome in everybody to the reveal of the number 17 team in my power rankings heading into the 2025 NFL season. Today we take a deep dive into the Arizona Cardinals. I am really excited for this one. I think this third season for Jonathan Ganon is just the biggest of years for him. I think their window is starting to line up after they’ve been building this thing up for a couple years and I think this team actually has a chance to be one of the sleeper, dare I even say Cinderella teams in the NFL this year, but there are a lot of aspects of this team that do need to go right for this team if that’s going to happen. So, a lot of fun stuff to talk about here today. Very much looking forward to this deep dive. As we dive in, if you could take just a second to hit that like button down below, it really does help me out. It supports this channel. It tells other Cardinals fans and NFL sickos just like you that you enjoyed the video. And make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any of the remaining deep dives as we lead up to the number one team in my power rankings. We are now at the midway point in this series. By the way, very exciting. Now, there is one thing we got to take care of before we start talking Cardinals here. I have been getting tagged left and right in the YouTube comments and on Twitter about a lot of moves and NFL news that has broken over the last 48 hours that will have impacts on some of the deep dives we have already done. The biggest of which is going to be Christian Wilkins getting released by the Las Vegas Raiders. I said in that deep dive that when I put these rankings together in early May, I figured Christian Wilkins would be a part of that. That has obviously changed dramatically. he gets released. We don’t even know how much he’s going to play this year. Um, but the update on the Las Vegas Raiders here. They are dropping three spots in their total team power ranking position. We had them as our 20th team. The Christian Wilkins news is big for them. They dropped down to the 23rd team. So, congrats to Falcons, Seahawks, and Colts fans. You guys will be jumping up one in your power ranking. And then for those looking at the screen here, you can see all of the different splits, be it the team run defense, the team pass defense, the Dline rankings. I’m not going to read all of those off. Um, but you can see those on the screen there, how everything is changing for the Raiders, but at the end of the day, anytime you’re talking about a team that does have sort of a Batman and Robin setup in many ways, which I thought they were going to have with Crosby and Wilkins this season and you lose that Robin, it is going to be a hit to the team. So, the Raiders are falling. And then I did also plug in some of the other things like Jordan Hicks retired for the Browns. Their linebacker ranking dropped just a little bit, especially in the run defense category. It wasn’t enough to change their spot in these power rankings. The Dolphins also are seeing a slight bump to their defensive back ranking with the additions of Mike Hilton and uh uh Jack Jones. So definitely up tod date on some of those other moves, just not quite as substantial in terms of the team rankings and stuff. But I know many people were curious, so I wanted to get that out of the way here at the beginning before we can now start talking about the Arizona Cardinals where let’s begin by breaking down this coaching staff. Uh they really have the same staff returning here for the third year of Jonathan Ganon’s regime. Although there was one significant change with a position coach in Clayton Adams, who did get hired to be the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys in our last deep dive where we praised Clayton Adams. And I do consider that a loss for the Cardinals. Not enough for me to say the total coaching staff is going to be downgraded or anything like that, but it will be something to keep an eye on as Justin Fry is going to reunite with Paris Johnson Jr. here um coming up from the college ranks to be the Cardinals new offensive line coach. But again, at the end of the day, in terms of changes for this off seasonason with the coaching staff, I did say neutral. Um but let’s get into it with Jonathan Ganon at the top of all of this. He is uh kind of the defensive overseer with Nick Rises, his left-hand man, as the defensive coordinator. And then we will jump over and talk about Drew Petting as well. Uh but yeah, just really a big third year for Jonathan Ganon. I think the first two years everybody can agree, at least everybody that’s been playing uh paying close attention should agree that things are going pretty well here for Jonathan Ganon. He had a tall order to come in here and not just get this team to remember how to how to play defense where in the Cliff Kingsbury era their defenses were really hard to watch for the vast majority of that time. Um, but also to come in and establish a new culture because I think some of those poor defenses stemmed from the Cardinals in the Cliff Kingsbury era really being a soft, squishy, and scared football team. I even made a video about it with that title, just how that team lacked physicality and culture and an overall uh toughness about them, which you need in the NFL, no matter how many fun plays and fast playmakers you have. Um, so it was a big ask for Jonathan Ganon to come in and establish some toughness with this team. And at the very beginning, there was a lot of people, myself included, that questioned this hire. He had some of the quirky moments with players that you see on social media and you’re like, “Oh, is this really a guy that the players are going to relate to and rally behind?” Not to mention, he was at the time really part of these Vic Fangio disciple coordinators that were all failing at the time. your Ed Donatell’s, Joe Barry’s, Brandon Staley. There was so many coaches that felt like they could just come out playoff zone quarters and get away with it all game. And it led to their defenses kind of getting picked apart. And I I think you even look at that 2022 Eagles team. There was just some questions about if that Eagles defense had truly lived up to their potential. Vic Fangio was also in the building that year with Jonathan Ganon uh as kind of a senior analyst. So, it was hard to know exactly how much influence Vic was having on that defense and whatever success they did have. Um, so there just were a lot of questions, myself included. I’ll hold my hand up. I was very skeptical of this hire and it really has worked out, especially when you talk about establishing a team culture and building up toughness. This team does now play a physical brand of football. They’ve been able to run the football. They play hard defensively. You know, I think you can make a strong argument that the Cardinals have had the worst roster talent on the defensive side of the ball in Jonathan Ganon’s Ganon’s tenure here. And in the first season, it was a lot of bad as you would expect with what they had to work with. It was a lot of practice squad journeyman vets that they were sorting through who was going to be on this team two or three years into the future. They didn’t have an efficient defense, but they had individual moments of um I don’t want to say brilliance, but good. And you did see a team that played fast. And I would put emphasis on the fact that this team flies to the ball. They love to tackle and hit. And in the second year of Jonathan Ganon’s defense here, you really felt that. And yet again, we were here in this series last year saying, “Hey, the Cardinals yet again have one of, if not the worst rosters defensively in the NFL.” I think I had them ranked bottom three in my defensive rankings for this series last year and they end up finishing the season 14th in defensive DVOA, 19th as a rush defense, and 15th as a pass defense that is miles above what their roster talent should have been capable of last year. And I think really just their ability to play fast and rally to the football and play with a team culture, it does really show when you watch this team play football. I don’t want to oversimplify it just all the way down to just tackling well, but that’s something that this team needed and it is definitely starting to lead to some results, but that is really what makes year three here so exciting. We will show the vast influx of talent into this defensive line and even into the secondary with a second round pick, especially of someone like Will Johnson. Um, but we’ve now seen Jonathan Ganon take his defense from bad roster talent to play at an average NFL level. That is a really impressive feat. But now, can he take a average to above average defensive roster and turn it into a good to great defense? And how many wins can that lead to for the Cardinals? And how much can that support an offense that has had to do a lot of the heavy lifting over the last two years? So that really does make it a big third year um to see if Jonathan Ganon can make that leap. But again, I think he has checked every box you could have asked of him in terms of establishing the culture here and bringing good defensive coaching to the table here. And I do think Nick Ris deserves some credit there as well. I might be a little bit biased. I played against Nick Rollis in high school. He was a year ahead of me, but I do remember game planning against him as a linebacker for Edina. And uh God, he was a menace on the on the high school football field, but I remember watching him for the Minnesota Golden Gophers as well. And he’s a young defensive mind that I think is getting a lot of respect here. Anytime you are a defensive coordinator underneath a head coach who was also brought in to effectively be your defensive coordinator, it’s going to be harder, I think, to get that sort of head coach recognition, but he could very well be a guy climbing up in the consideration for that. But I do think Ganon’s got a really nice kind of mentee there next to him, bringing his own motivation and schematic thoughts to the table here to help this defense uh overachieve in in the way that they have the last couple of years. But I do want to talk a little bit about what this team looks like schematically speaking before we flip over to the offensive side of the ball. And this defense has been one of the more unique ones, I think, given that they’ve had to get a little bit weird, not having a whole lot of roster talent to work with. Um, now on early downs, not so much. This team has basically played a fair share of base defense, a lot of base three, four. They run on early downs. Over 70% of their plays end up either cover one or cover three. Now, they do like to try to present those sort of fangio inspired concepts where the safeties will rotate post snap to try to cause some confusion, but they have ended up single high and cover one, cover three, trying to get more guys in the box to basically try to get you into a third and pass situation. And that is really where we have seen Jonathan Ganon and maybe perhaps Nick Rollis’, dare I say, defensive genius come through. I think the one thing that I I saw from Ganon late in that Eagles season uh in 2022 that really did impress me was how he was able to scheme up free rushers and and put together some pre- snap blitz looks that really did confuse protections and and have efficient blitzing defense on third downs. And that has translated now into his two seasons here for the Arizona Cardinals. They will put any number of guys up at the line. You don’t know who’s going to drop into coverage cuz they have these athletic edge rushers that are very good coverage droppers. Xavan Collins himself was a converted linebacker with a really high zone IQ. They bring in a Baron Browning as well. So those edge rushers are like legitimate coverage droppers. Um and then they use a guy from the slot in Garrett Williams who’s going to get a lot of praise in today’s video. They’ll use him as a blitzer or they’ll even drop him into a cover two from the slot. They actually do that quite a bit. Just really kind of mixing things up, not just with their blitz looks and trying to cause confusion and get offensive linemen to slide in the wrong way and pick up the wrong blitzer and that kind of stuff. Um, but also dropping coverage players into spots the quarterbacks aren’t used to. So, they’ve really just kind of been relatively simple on early downs. Let the guys play fast, go tackle, run and chase, and then on third down, they’ve been blitz happy. They’ve they’ve gotten weird and and it’s it’s been hit or miss, I think, as you would expect with a style like that, but it has led to some very effective defensive outings. Now, I don’t think Ganon wants to live in that world forever. Um, I think we are going to see a change to his defense to probably be more like a Vic Fangio defense that ideally they can win with four much more often. Play some more of those quarter style coverages on the back end. Rotate into cover six, cover two while winning with four up front and then use the blitz more as a change up so that when you do blitz, offenses have no idea where you’re coming from. Um, and just be really efficient when you do blitz. Um, so that I think is where they want to go would be my guess, but only time will tell, I suppose, if they want to change things up from what they’ve been doing. Um, so I’m a big fan of Jonathan Ganon and Nick Rollis here together as the defensive coaching duo, if you will. And that is reflected in their uh overall coaching rankings there. So the the overall coaching culture ranking is actually pretty good here. Uh, they get a B-grade there, 17th to 18th. Again, I think Ganon’s done a good job building up this team culture, giving them an identity. And then for the defensive coaching rankings, again, B-grades. So, tied for 13th for pass defense coaching and tied for 15th for run defense coaching. Again, I think on both sides of the ball, they overachieved last year, finishing 19th in run defense and 15th in pass defense, at least going off of the DVOA rankings. But with that, let’s flip over to the offensive side of things with Drew Petting and his offense where I’m also very optimistic about Drew Ping. I definitely see him as one of the ascending young offensive minds that will be in consideration for a head coach for somebody potentially as early as next season depending how well things go here. And that is the one major downside to having someone like a Jonathan Ganon as your head coach is anytime you do nail the offensive coordinator, you are going to be at risk of losing that guy and having to find another guy that can run the offense as well. But at least for now, he is here and Cardinals fans, in my opinion, should be quite excited about that. I think Ping has done a really nice job bringing over Kevin Stfansky’s offense, which is every bit that Shanahan based offense that likes to get into 12 personnel, uh, and then use the threat of the run game to piggyback into a playaction game, suck in those linebackers, get pass rushers moving east and west. Your classic Shanahan concepts. That’s a core part of what Kevin Stfansky does in Cleveland and what Drew Petting did with him in the three years when Petting was there with him. But one thing that really stands out to me about Petting’s offense is how he’s basically taken Kevin Stfansky and that playbook and then gotten creative to mix in the Kyler Murray run game element. Now, we didn’t see them run quite as much this year. Kyler himself has voiced that he doesn’t want to run too much, but when they do call it, he is incredibly efficient in the design run game. And obviously Kyler Murray is very talented himself. But I do think Drew Petting’s scheming of it where it’s not just coming out and calling a read option, the way they use pre-nap motion to create extra lead blockers or the way that they do run a lot of gap runs using the QB run game. um they get really creative with that QB run game and they time it up really well. If they’re not going to do it too much, if it’s only going to be two, three, four times a game compared to some of these other teams like Buffalo and Baltimore and Philly where they’re going to do it six, seven, eight times a game, uh they’re going to be damn sure that they’ve got the right play called and it’s going to work. And that’s reflected in the stats, by the way. on designed runs last year. Kyler Murray uh had the most yards per designed run in the league of anyone with 20 or more designed runs. Ironically, Dorian Thompson Robinson um with 15 designed runs was second in the NFL if you lowered that down to a minimum of 15 in Cleveland last year. You can only imagine Kevin Stfansky was looking up Drew Petting designed run plays with Kyler Murray to see that influence there. But yeah, more than Lamar, more than Anthony Richardson, more than Justin Fields, Jaden Daniels, Kyler Murray, more efficient on his design runs. And the the scheming of that is really really effective. Um, but their past designs, I think, were good. I think there’s still room to prove that they can get more creative, maybe to get like a Marvin Harrison involved there. Um, so you do see the pass game coach rankings with a C++ grade there. not bad, but tied for 22nd in the NFL, whereas the run game coaching ranks are tied for 12th with a B-grade. So, I think very highly of Drew Petting. And I think that conversation uh was good to pair kind of how we think about Drew Petting with what his scheme looks like. So, I think we are probably good now to conclude this coach and scheme breakdown. Uh, it’s a unit that does get me excited between Jonathan Ganon and the offensive coaching with Drew Petting, even Nick Rallis getting his shout out there as the de facto defensive coordinator, but they’ve built things up uh to be a competent football team here. Um, now it’s time to really take that next step and prove that this can be one of the better coached teams in the NFC or maybe even the NFL. So, big year for these guys. I definitely would not say Jonathan Ganon is on the hot seat by any stretch of the imagination. Um, but I do think it’s a big year, kind of a telling year in terms of the upside of a Jonathan Ganon and can he take that next leap to be more of a top half ranking head coach. Whereas right now, for those looking at the graphic, you can see I rank him as the 23rd overall head coach. Uh, a respectable ranking with room to grow certainly. But let’s now get into the good stuff, the roster breakdown for the Arizona Cardinals. Uh, starting on offense with this quarterback room and taking a look at their offseason changes first and foremost here. Really not a whole lot of changes with the overall offense at all as we’ll see as we build up this graphic going position to position. Um, but no losses at quarterback. sticking with Kyler Murray obviously, but they do bring in a quality backup in Jacobe Brassette, but still saying the quarterback room overall is staying neutral this off season. But let’s get into Kyler Murray here and have this conversation because he is definitely a polarizing quarterback to discuss. I think a lot of people have thoughts on Kyler Murray and I certainly had my own takes on this. I came out and called Kyler Murray the most underrated player in all of sports last off season um because of the Call of Duty jokes and heading into the 2023 season, people were just acting like it was a guarantee that the Cardinals were going to get the number one pick and draft Caleb Williams and I was like, “Wait a minute, Kyler’s going to come back at this second half of the season and you’re going to win some football games no matter how bad your your team is when Kyler Murray is your quarterback.” And that’s exactly what happened. We head into last year and it was a roller coaster season or at least a high then low season. I mean, for the first eight weeks, nine weeks, I was taking victory laps. You know, sharing clips about me calling him the most underrated player. You know, the MVP odds were climbing on Kyler Murray. He had two of the most incredible quarterback performances that any QB had on the entire season against the Rams and the Dolphins. Go watch those games, by the way, if you haven’t. Kyler was out of his mind in both of those games. But he went into Buffalo week two when nobody thought highly of this Cardinals team and they took that Bills team all the way down to the wire. And uh very quickly and early in the season, it became very clear that this Cardinals team was a relevant kind of playoff contender. And right around that mid point in the season, you had Kyler Murray starting to get some MVP discussion. You had the Cardinals on top of the NFC West and really ahead of schedule, the Cardinals all of a sudden got these expectations placed on them and Kyler Murray had all these expectations placed on him. The underrated aspect of Kyler Murray very quickly went away and all of a sudden it was all right, this is this guy’s got to keep it up and get this team into the playoffs or this is going to turn into a disappointment. And if you said that the Cardinals were going to go 8-9 and be heavily in contention in the NFC West to a Cardinals fan last off season, I think every single Cardinals fan or at least 90% of them would sign up for that, especially if you said, “Hey, Kyler Murray at mid-season is going to be playing really well and um you know, start getting some some MVP talk.” Uh, but unfortunately the stakes got risen and I will admit I was disappointed in how Kyler Murray played down the stretch and I’ve never really felt as discouraged watching Kyler Murray tape frankly as I did in the second half of the year. He just did not play well and I don’t want to say that the pressure got too big for him or anything like that but it it it did you know his play kind of reflected that. I I don’t think he played as aggressively as he did in the first half of the season. I don’t think he looked to extend plays with his feet as much, which is a part of what makes him so special. Um he looked almost like he was willing to take uh non- negative plays or eat sacks way more consistently than earlier in the season. And then you saw some moments of bad processing, bad decision-making. He had the one Seahawks game where he starts the game off with just two hideous interceptions. And that was right around the point where, you know, the stakes were starting to get raised for this Cardinals team. So, it’s a hard season to kind of take away, you know, what what are your thoughts on Kyler Murray from last year because the first half was awesome and he had the Cardinals ahead of schedule and he was winning games for this football team. I don’t want to say single-handedly, but certainly certainly the reason that they were able to win some of those games early. And then you go to the second half of the year and he was hurting this team. So it’s it is a big year for him as well on top of Jonathan Ganon to see okay Kyler can you finish a full season playing like a top 10 to 12 quarterback like he has shown in probably 6 to nine week stretches not just last year but throughout the course of his career he has shown that he can give us a half season or twothirds of a season at a really high level but it does seem to be that things fall off at a at a certain point in the season uh typically at the end of the season. So, it’s a big year for him to kind of shake that narrative that is built up on him for sure. And obviously, a lot of that’s just going to come down to having the right preparation. Year three in this offense, another year with Marvin Harrison, where last year him and Marv it just felt like they could never quite get on the same page. Can they establish that elite QB wide receiver chemistry like Kyler had back when he had DeAndre Hopkins, which was probably when Kyler was at the peak of his powers as a quarterback. And then again, I would just love to see Kyler for the course of a season. Just just be Kyler, man. Don’t don’t be afraid to run. Don’t be afraid to get out of the pocket and and headunt and make big plays because that is really the point of Kyler Murray is his unbelievable quick twitch athleticism to get out of the pocket, to get out of sacks, to scramble um when those rush lanes are there, but also to make crazy throws on the run where I do think Kyler Murray does not get enough credit for his armed talent. they see this 5 foot10 small quarterback and assume, yeah, that guy’s got a small arm. No, Kyler Murray, he’s got a strong arm. I don’t know that I’d say it’s a top 10 like arm strength. Um, but because he’s so compact from any platform, he can make crazy throws on the move. Uh, whether he’s rolling left or right, it’s it’s really fun to watch. Like that baseball background really shows in his natural ability to throw the football. So, I am obviously a huge Kyler Murray fan. That much became very clear last off season, but I will be honest, like how he played down the stretch was disappointing, and I want to see him now in a in a year where there are real expectations for this Cardinals team get more consistent and and play play that well throughout the course of a season. So, right now, as we head into 2025, I have Kyler as the 15th overall quarterback, the 17th ranking in as a passing grade. I have him in the tier three of NFL quarterbacks. And then he is um rank he ranks fifth to sixth with an A minus grade for the QB rushing multiplier. And full disclosure, that would be an Agrade, but because of some of the things Kyler has said and what we saw last year, they just don’t do it as much as some of the elite QB rushing teams. Kyler Murray had 38 designed runs last year. Compare that to 113 for Lamar Jackson, 65 for Anthony Richardson in 11 games, 96 for Jaden Daniels, 84 for Josh Allen. So, it’s not just the individual talent of the QB as a design rusher for that ranking. It is also uh the scheme and and what that goes into it and how much they want to use the guy in the design run game. So that’s why that one seems a little bit lower than you would expect given that I already said earlier in the video Kyler Murray was number one in the league in how efficient he was on design QB runs. But it is certainly still high enough to kind of help his overall rating where he was 17th ranking for pass rating but 15th overall for the total quarterback ranking. And I do think if we get that full season of consistency and maybe if he gets a little bit more help from his defense in some games uh where he doesn’t have to do quite as much at times I do think we can get back to considering if Kyler Murray might be more of a top 10 quarterback. Um but for now he’s a very good quarterback. He is certainly good enough for the Arizona Cardinals in my opinion. Um, but can he be one that really elevates this team and helps push them forward into more of a Super Bowl contention type of window here? Uh, it’s a big year to see kind of what the ceiling might be on a Kyler Murrayled offense. Um, and then I do like the signing of Jacobe Brassette. I don’t really have too much to add, but he is of course one of the better backups in the NFL. So, why not uh bring him and bring him in and and run an offense that he’s familiar with. He ran Kevin Stfansky’s offense quite well several years ago in Cleveland. Uh so should be a pretty seamless process if Kyler Murray’s going to miss a few weeks, which does happen with Kyler. He has had a little bit more durability questions than other quarterbacks, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. So there is your quarterback room. Would love to hear from you guys what you think of Kyler Murray as the 15th best quarterback in the league. Is that too high, too low, just right? Let me know. And uh also sorry to any Clayton Ton truthers still out there. He is QB3. Uh I don’t really have much that I really want to add on Clayton Ton there. Let’s uh go ahead and move on now to who Kyler is going to be throwing to here with this group of weapons. Uh yet again, not a lot of change this off season. Actually, no change with the weaponry. almost to a surprising level. They lose nobody at wide receiver. They add nobody at wide receiver. At tight end, they lose nobody and they add nobody at tight end. So, obviously staying neutral with both of those position groups with the weaponry here. Um, but it’s still a good unit despite no offseason changes. They get a B-grade for me, ranking 14th to 17th in the NFL. And obviously room for this to climb up if Marvin Harrison Jr. in year two can take that leap to be the caliber of prospect that I think we all for the most part agreed he was the highest graded wide receiver prospect I’ve ever had in the what seven years I’ve been doing this and because of the hype and the expectations and perhaps the fact that the LSU guys Brian Thomas and um uh uh Malik Neighbors had the production they had. I think we all would also agree that the Marvin Harrison rookie season was some bit of a disappointment. And maybe that word is too harsh. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think we were all expecting at least a 1,00 yard season from Marv and it didn’t happen. He actually falls a good bit short of that at 885 yards. Um, but whether you want to call it a disappointment or not, there was there was definitely just some moments of frustration. And I I think that the, you know, the separation from Marv, you want to see more. Uh NFL corners didn’t have too hard of a time sticking in his hip pocket and playing tight coverage. Um, but especially getting on the same page with Kyler Murray, man, the amount of miscommunications and kind of back shoulder attempts and stop routes on the perimeter where Marv would stop in one place or look for the ball at a different angle and Kyler was looking um, you know, to put the ball in a different spot. Those really added up throughout the course of the year. And then even on even when they were on the same page and the throw was in the right spot, there was so many back shoulders and and fades into the end zone that Marv was like one of the best fade catching receivers in college football history. uh he just would let the ball go through his hands and and not secure some of those tough catches that you thought at the end of the day Marv’s ability to win tough contested catches was going to be exceptional out the gate based on the multiple years of his college tape doing that. And it’s not that he was bad. Again, 42% contested catch win rate. You’re certainly not in panic mode or anything like that, but you’re expecting Marv to be up there into the 50% range to really be a dominant ball winner. And I think that’s a huge aspect of his game that he’s going to look to improve this year. I think yeah, the route running is one thing like he’s he was never the fastest guy and a guy that was like, you know, his home run trait was going to be speed and separation like it is maybe for a Malik Neighbors or a Brian Thomas Jr. Um, but the ball skills were absolutely elite as a prospect and they were just good in his rookie season. I think he wants to be an NFL elite ball skills uh type of receiver. And I think that is also reflected in the 11 pounds that he put on this off season. And now I’m starting to get really excited because a lot of you guys know AJ Brown is one of my favorite players in the NFL. I I think very highly of his skill set. He’s another one of these elite alpha number one wide receivers, but he doesn’t necessarily win first with speed and separation. I would actually say athletically speaking, Marvin and AJ Brown are relatively close to each other. And Marvin Harrison now is going to play at 61 220 pounds. He has really bulked up. AJ Brown plays at 61 225 pounds. So, is that kind of the next evolution of Marvin Harrison is kind of leaning into the physical uh the physicality aspect of this position and still like an AJ Brown being able to be a good route runner, win with nuance and and solid speed. Like I I I’ve always said Marvin has solid speed, good enough for the NFL level, but he can’t win on speed alone. Um very similar to AJ Brown in that sense. And if Marvin Harrison in year two can be something close to what AJ Brown has been in in his last three, four years for someone like Jaylen Herz, uh, yeah, that will absolutely play for Arizona. And that would be a huge push towards Kyler playing more like a top 10 quarterback, towards this Cardinals offense accomplishing some really special things and this Cardinals team being more of a Super Bowl contender. So with that, yeah, Marvin Harrison absolutely gets that wildcard icon. Not because the floor is low with him. I think we saw the floor as a rookie was still a good kind of number two target in this offense, a good possession receiver on the outside, still a very quality starter that can have some big games. Um, but can he reach his ceiling of being that true number one alpha type of wide receiver now with the added uh weight and play strength? And it’s not just winning contested catches, by the way. That can help him in two other assets here. Secondly, as a uh run after catch threat, he only forced one missed tackle in his rookie season. That’s crazy low. Those numbers could come way up with better play strength and a stiff arm and contact balance. Basically built like a running back like 61 220. I think that’s like Joe Mixon is like 6′ 220. So the run after catch can go up as well. Um and then the run blocking aspect too. Not that he was a bad run blocker, but this team does really lean into outside runs, and if he is able to smash corners on the outside, that can actually make a really underrated impact on this offense as a whole. So, there’s been some questions about him adding weight. I think it’s I think it’s going to work. I I really do, but he’s got to come out and prove it for sure. Um, so that’s why he gets that wild card icon and the up arrow on him. But I am just the utmost excited to see Marv here in year two. Um, and I am buying stock. I just traded two first round picks in a dynasty league to go and get him and and get that stack with Kyler Murray. So, um I’m backing it up in my dynasty leagues as well. Um and if you’re playing underdog fantasy best baseball or seasonl long pickums as well, by the way, because Marvin Harrison had a down year last year, his seasonl long higher or lower on underdog is 974 yards. I also think he can go higher than the six and a half receiving touchdowns as well. I mean, he had eight last season. That contested catchability down in the red zone should help there as well. And you know, they like to look that way on those red zone fades. So, I think both of those are really nice. Or just drafting them in your best ball lineups, too. So, if you guys do want to play on Underdog, it’s a ton of fun. You can sign up using code TFG. They will give you a bonus match up to $1,000. So, you can kind of take that bonus and apply it to a lot of these seasonl long pick them lineups and then keep that extra uh match in there for your your regular season contests as well. Um, but however you want to do it, it’s code TFG when you sign up and you’ll support my channel in the process. Underdog’s been a great partner to work with, so they deserve a shout out here. Uh, but let’s get back to the weapons conversation. I think you guys get the point on Marvin Harrison. I’m I’m excited to see what we what we get there. Um, but you really should start the conversation with Trey McBride, at least for now, until Marv can take that leap to be the true number one. Um, but the fact that you do have someone in Trey McBride who is one of these superstar receiving entities in the NFL, uh, is is big. Like that speaks to the upside of this group, but it helps the floor as well. McBride, I think, is even underrated to this date, probably because of his touchdown numbers from last year. I don’t know if everybody realizes just how good he really is. McBride had some crazy streak going where he didn’t score a touchdown until week 17, even though he is a tight end who do tend to get more touchdowns. Um, but he had 111 receptions last season. That was fourth in the entire NFL. He had,50 yards and on tape he is just a true doit all in line tight end which there’s just not that many of them in the league. Like he is the closest thing to George KD right now in terms of a true superstar tight end. And I know Brock Bowers is doing what what he’s doing for the Raiders, but Brock Bowers plays like 70% of his snaps as a either a slot wide receiver or an outside wide receiver. I obviously praised him in the Raiders deep dive. It’s a big reason why I am higher on the Las Vegas Raiders as so many people kindly let me know in this series. But Trey McBride is actually in there playing 60% of snaps as an inline player. And and frankly, he he could do even more than that. But they did draft Tip Raymond, a 270lb tight end to give them the flexibility um to put Trey Trey Moore in the slot and stuff. But you do see Trey McBride actually put his hand in the dirt and dig out defensive ends and be an impact in the run game as well as being a fast tight end that can pull away on these playaction crossers that are the core staple of this passing game. you see him catch dump offs and do the check and release stuff and be a menace after the catch. He is a guy that Kyler trusts in a pinch. Um whether it’s from the pocket just putting the ball out there for Trey to go make a catch, but also when they get into scramble drill, Kyler Murray obviously when he does scramble he’s incredible at it. But to have a guy like Trey McBride to be in many ways similar to how Travis Kelce and Mahomes have that, you know, mindmeld mentality to find the soft spots in zones when they do start scrambling or to break away from his man. Trey is excellent at being that quarterback’s best friend in that regard, too. So, he just he is the true doit all superstar tight end that you look for. You could even argue the arrow should be pointing up on him to um threaten to take the crown as the best tight end in the NFL. Hard to take that from George KD. And then you do have the Brock Bowers conversation as well. Um but whether whether he kind of quote unquote takes that last leap into the elite NFL players category or not, um you don’t you don’t really need that here. you know, I think you’re more than happy with what he is, especially if Marv can ascend to be uh, you know, this team’s true number one target and wide receiver. And then Trey McBride as a complement to that, it it it just couldn’t be any more perfect. So, McBride for now is the best overall player in this group of weapons and is is a big core reason why they are still ranking near the top half of the league for this group. So, love that. Uh, and then you really just get into kind of your ancillary playmakers. Everybody else kind of has their role. It’s a very simplified passing game. But, you know, look at Philadelphia. Sometimes simple is good. Get get the ball into the hands of your two or three best playmakers. Do it efficiently and then everybody else can kind of get their targets, do what they got to do. I’m not really expecting huge seasons from anybody else here, though. I think it’s going to be a very Marvin Harrison and Trey McBride centered passing game. Um, but I will talk about Michael Wilson next, who I I really like Michael Wilson, man. I did coming out I’ve liked what we’ve seen from him in Arizona, but I do think we’ve seen him kind of reach what his projection was, his most likely projection coming out was as kind of a wide receiver three and in this setup with Trey McBride and Marv as your one and two. I think that’s just fine with Michael Wilson. It would be more ideal to have a little bit more dynamism here. I would love for this team to activate and find more of a true deep threat here. And that was something I wish they maybe took a fourth or a fifth round pick and took a gamble on like a Taekwon Thornton or Shamari DK. You know, something like that would have been really fun to see here. But Michael Wilson does other things that they really appreciate here. He’s a bigger wide receiver, so he run blocks. Um, but for a bigger wide out, he is actually a really snappy route runner. So, if you’re running uh slants, digs, comebackers, he can get open on those routes. And he’s very physical at the catch point as well. He led this team in contested catch win rate last year. Came down with 11 out of 18 targets for 61%. So, for what he is, he is a very serviceable, solid number three wide receiver that helps set the floor of this group, though he doesn’t necessarily elevate this group a ton. Um, so I’m a fan of Michael Wilson, but I’m also not gonna sit here and bang the drum and be like, “Yeah, he’s gonna emerge as like a, you know, Jordan Addison or Devont Smith or whoever those kind of top number two wide receivers are. I just I don’t know that Wilson has the juice to really reach that level, but I like him for what he is.” And then you got Greg Dorch, who’s your gadget guy, but he is more than a gadget guy, but that is how they can use him certainly. Um, you know, Dorch is one of these guys that I love to say if you could put him in the body of a much more talented wide receiver, you would end up with a superstar. But Greg Dorch is 5 foot seven and just has limited physical capabilities, but he’s super quick. He is a snappy route runner. Generally speaking, he’s got reliable hands as long as you’re able to put it within his very small catch radius. Um, he’s he’s very shifty after the catch. He actually made uh had 14 missed tackles forced on 37 receptions last year. So, he’s very useful for what he is. Greg Dorch is a legit piece of an NFL passing game, but another guy that again is just more capped out by his physical tools. So, those two guys have very much their roles as 3A and 3B in this passing game again with Trey McBride and Marv as one and two. And then you do have to talk about James Connor as well who is quite the nuisance underneath. Uh he is a big back, probably not the first guy that many people would think of as one of the better receiving backs in the NFL. Um but what always gets underrated is that bigger backs can pass protect and they are fully practical on third down whereas some of the other backs it might be a little bit more of a tell that they’re just going to go out and run a route right away. We don’t often talk about backs like a James Connor flipped on its head as a quote unquote mismatch problem, but the fact that James Connor can step in and help keep Kyler upright in a way that some of these dynamic receiving backs like maybe uh Jir Gibbs, not to just isolate him, but someone kind of in that archetype, Jir Gibbs is not a very good pass protector like a James Connor is, but Connor is just so good at staying in block but then leaking out underneath on, you you know, towards the sideline or just settling down underneath. And then he is one of the hardest guys to tackle in the NFL. We’ll have more to praise on him in the run game as well, but um he’s got really secure hands. He actually makes seemingly every year like some crazy over- the-sh shoulder one-handed catch as well. And he’s also really a natural with his excellent vision in the screen game as well. So, James Connor very quietly finished with the eighth most receiving yards among uh NFL receiving backs and was third in the NFL in miss tackles forced after the catch behind Bucky Irving and Josh Jacobs. So, he is very underrated in that phase as well. And just like Michael Wilson and Greg Dorch, he very much plays his role as a complimentary piece here. So, everybody has that nice role. there’s no confusion about who needs to get the ball and and making sure you’re you’re not just spreading the ball around, but being efficient with those targets as well. Everybody’s in a spot where they can um you know, be efficient with their touches basically. So, really do like the starting five and there’s room for it to be more of a top 10 unit depending on how Marv can grow in year two. Um and then in terms of the depth, let’s start with the wide receivers. So you have Z Jones who’s a fine enough wide receiver for he is like kind of the NPC wide receiver for he run blocks he’s got balanced size just kind of um I think balanced is the right word for Isa Jones. He stuck around the league for a long time in this role for a reason. But beyond that it is mostly kind of undrafted depth. They do have some intriguing deep threats uh down the board there. Specifically Tristan Jackson and Quz Watkins. Quz was with Jonathan Ganon at least in Philadelphia. He’s got a lot of speed but drop issues. Um he’s kind of a poor man’s Marquez Valdez Gantling. Um Tristan Jackson’s a guy I’ve always wanted to see get an opportunity as well. So I I didn’t quite put the I emoji on them because I don’t even know if those guys will make the team. But I did talk about how I would love to get a little bit more of a field stretching element in there. Maybe that could be Xavier Weaver who played a little bit last year or Tjon Palmer who they drafted in the sixth round of 2024. But personally, I would love to see um Jackson or Watkins or even SI Sim Foku who’s got kind of that Sia speed combo make this team and then keep an eye on them on like play action deep shots and stuff as a wide receiver five uh type. But then at tight end, you do have Tip Raymond who they really did draft to run 12 personnel and to block and for a rookie, he did a very good job in that role. I would love to see even more from him in the receiving game, though. He only got seven targets last year. I think there’s more to be unlocked there for a big guy that can run and was in my opinion really good after the catch at Illinois. So, um we we’ll see. Again, just six receptions for 37 yards playing all 17 games last year. It’s hard to say he’s much of a factor, but I do think there’s something in there for a guy that does play a lot. Played about 20 25 snaps a game last year as this team was towards the top in 12 personnel usage last year. Elijah Higgins though, this was a nice little pickup for them. also gets on the field about honestly like 15 20 snaps a game. He plays as well because um this is a fun setup where Tip Raymond is your true inline tight end. Trey McBride is your doit all wide tight end. You can put him as the inline guy with Elijah Higgins on the wing if you want to get that really athletic wing or they can make Trey McBride the wing because he’s got plenty of athleticism to do that as well with Tip Raymond in there in line. So, they got a ton of flexibility there, but they will use Elijah Higgins as well. And he’s honestly like he’s never going to be this fantasy superstar or someone that gets a lot of attention, but he has proved to be a nuisance for opposing defenses. He deserves a shout out. Um, he was a receiver at Stanford. He was Michael Wilson’s teammate. Uh, but he gets drafted in the sixth round by the Miami Dolphins. they weren’t able to find a real plan for him. But kind of in that sort of Michael Puit, John Smith role, uh, if you will, where he is just kind of a mismatch problem in 12 personnel, he he plays a role here and at least deserves a shout out. He blocks hard when he’s able to get slot corners and stuff from that position. Technically speaking, I mean, you could argue for the up arrow on him as well. This is only his third year as a tight end because he was a receiver at Stanford. Um, but uh I just I think this is kind of who he is and who he’s going to be. I don’t necessarily feel the need to call some big Elijah Higgins breakout, but again, deserves a shout out for sure. They brought in Josiah Duara as well. I don’t see him taking those that role from Elijah Higgins, but maybe as more of a true fullback here. Uh, if they wanted to do some of that stuff, you would see Duo make the team in that role. And then you do have some backup running backs that can do some stuff here, too. Amari de Marcado has some juice. Trey Benson has a lot of juice, especially in like the screen game. I would love to see uh if he can get more involved as a third down back, keep working on that pass protection because he’s got the size to be a true three down back as well someday. Uh DJ Dallas is one of the better pass protecting running backs in the league as well. And then Michael Carter’s got some jitterbug ability. So, they are pretty deep with pass catchers out of the back field as well. Uh it’s a it’s a really fun unit, man. I’m a big fan of this group of weapons. Again, they rank 14th to 17th in the NFL. they are collectively more than good enough to allow this Cardinals to do what they want to do offensively. But if Marv can take that next step, uh this can be a a really transcendent group that gets this offense into some pretty exciting heights. I I really do believe that. But let’s now go to the backfield where we can focus on these running backs uh as contributors to the run game. Um and offseason changes for the running back room. Yet again, no change. They lose nobody and they add nobody. So, no losses, no additions at wide receiver, tight end, or running back. Uh, very unique this Cardinals team. They were very happy with the the roster offensively and knew they had to spend all of their resources effectively on the defensive side of the ball. Um, but this backfield, I think, is very good and potentially the most underrated backfield in the league. You can make a strong argument for that, man. And I I I have them ranked eighth to 12th at running back with a B+ grade here. I think James Connor himself is possibly the most underrated running back in the league. One of my favorite backs to watch because no, he is not fast. He is possibly the slowest starting running back in the NFL. And that is why he gets underrated because people love to focus on speed. But I think you can make a strong argument. James Connor has top five vision in the NFL. He is able to run between the tackles and let blocks set up and uh kind of bounce through the offensive line, almost glide his way to eight yard gains at times, but at his size, he has excellent contact balance. But it not it’s not just the listed size. James Connor, the cancer survivor, this guy, you can tell he puts the time into taking care of his body and in the weight room where he is a brick house. There are very few running backs in the NFL as strong as him. It’s some of that Ashtton Gintyesque physical ability where even if you catch him off balance uh or stumbling, he is a stiff arm away or just kind of uh you know contorting his body upwards into you from awkward angles. that contact balance, the raw power, it really shows with him and he can assert himself on opposing defensive players very very easily with his play strength. And that is reflected in his miss tackle forced rate. And I think this is what people don’t realize about James Connor is how many people he makes quote unquote miss. Even if there’s a physical element to that, yeah, he might not be juking you out of your shoes or putting on a spin move. Um, but James Connor last year was fifth in the NFL in miss tackles forced and in 2023 he was third in the NFL in miss tackles forced. PFF uses uh an elusive rating is one of their their um signature stats and it’s basically determining the success of the running back uh separate from the run blocking using a lot of the yards after contact and miss tackles forced metrics. And James Connor was seventh in the NFL in elusive rating last year, fourth in 2023. And you talk about a tough back that is going to get more than is blocked up for him. He was second in yards after contact in 2023. 13th last year, so a little bit lower, but still very good. And in yards per attempt, he was 13th this last season and sixth in 2023. Both of those being back-to-back 1,000 plus yard seasons. I I think James Connor has a strong argument to be a top 10 running back in the NFL. and he is probably not someone that cracks a lot of people’s list uh lists of top 10 running backs yet. It’s pretty hard to argue that he’s been there the last two years. And it’s not like the Cardinals have had incredible offensive lines either. They’ve been okay to below average in my opinion. And then one last thing I want to praise James Connor on is again something you wouldn’t think about with James Connor given that he is possibly the slowest running back in the NFL. Despite that, he might be the best running back in the league at seeing and anticipating bounce out lanes. I don’t know that there’s a back in the league that is more instinctive when he’s caught in the backfield to know that he can get out and get the corner and turn it into a 10, 12 yard gain. But that doesn’t come at the cost of someone like a DeAndre Swift or maybe like a Javvante Williams who we were hard on in the Cowboys deep dive. It’s not too often that James Connor looks for the bounce out and it’s a bad idea where he ends up getting caught in the back field and losing three, four yards. If he shouldn’t bounce it, he’ll put his head down and get you three, four yards. If there’s an opportunity and that backside slot corner or weak side linebacker, whatever it might be, if he collapses down, Connor will see it and take advantage of that bounce bounce out lane. It’s a huge asset to him as a runner that gets very underrated. So, I’m a big fan of James Connor, what he brings to the table for this run game. And even though he’s 30 years old, uh he’s durable because of his toughness and his size and he’s not a player that has, you know, built his game contingent on burst and speed. So, I think he will age pretty well. Eventually, that falloff’s going to come, but I’m not really anticipating that that’s going to come here in his age 30 season. And he’s done a really good job to fend off one of my favorite draft prospects here in Trey Benson heading into year two. So, let’s talk about Benson. He’s not going to be the full-time RB2. They do like Amari de Marcato for the juice that he’s been able to bring for this team, too. Uh, but I think the hope is still that Trey Benson can emerge as the future starter for this team. Although, James Connor seems to have uh other thoughts about that. But I do still believe in Trey Benson, but his rookie season, you know, it got off especially to a slow start. Not just because James Connor continued to play well, but you know, early in the season, for example, week two, he gets 11 carries against the Rams, and he just he didn’t really seem to know which holes to hit. He wasn’t playing very fast, and he ends up with just 10 yards on 11 carries against a Rams defense that was good last year, but not very good against the run. Um, he had some ugly moments, and after that game, he saw less carries. Um, but down the stretch around week nine, week 10, he started to uh kind of pick things back up and and ran more like the Trey Benson we saw at Florida State and then he did unfortunately miss some time with an injury at the very end of the season. So, it was certainly reassuring to see him get better as his rookie season went on. We get so used to these rookie running backs just stepping in and it basically not being a problem going to the NFL game. But for Trey Benson, it did take some time. So, it’ll be a big year two for him as a high third round pick was my RB1 in that draft class. So, I’m obviously pulling for him to be good and for me to be right about that. I think his contact balance, his ability to make guys miss, his speed and home running ability, home run hitting ability. My high-end pro comp on him was Jonathan Taylor, which is obviously high praise, but I think from a physical standpoint at 61, 220 lbs, put this guy next to Marvin Harrison, these guys are the same size now. Um there is a lot to work with physically speaking and again very encouraging that the mental side of things, the vision did get better. Um you started to see him anticipate those second level defenders as well and start to make some guys miss and get some explosive runs. So we’ll see what year two looks like. I think the up arrow absolutely should still be pointing up on him, but uh he’s unproven as well as a backup running back. Amari D Marcato has some shiftiness, has some vision. They like what he brings to the table for what he is. You got DJ Dallas is their kind of uh luxury pass blocking kick returner guy. Like he’s going to make the team, I would imagine, because he’s just a a nice back end of the roster type of guy, but not not this crazy asset for the backfield. And then we’ll see if either Michael Carter or Bam Donovan Knight make this team. Donovan Knight broke onto the scene early as a rookie for the Jets. Michael Carter also was on that Jets team, ironically. As far as RB4 and RB5s are concerned, those are talented players. So, they do have depth and might have a really exciting one-two punch that can get those 30% of carries that James Connor ultimately can’t take. Uh because you just can’t give your starting running back every single touch. It would be great if Trey Benson could emerge as one of the better RB2s in the league and eventually take this backfield, but ultimately they’re going to be more than okay as long as James Connor is in this backfield, especially because of what we talked about with him being a a three down back. Like he is one of the true bellcow starting running backs in the league where you don’t have to take him off the field too much and when he’s out there, he’s not a tell to the opponent what you’re looking to do. So ultimately a very good backfield to complement a very good group of running backs. Let’s finish up the offensive side of the ball and talk about the offensive line where they did have some changes here though nothing really major at all. Um they lose a couple of guys that played last year. Will Hernandez has been a starter here for several years but he only played a quarter of their games last year and they let him go and he I think is still out there to be signed for anybody looking for some guard help. And then Tristan Cologne as well stepped in and he wasn’t horrible for this offensive line, but they’re looking maybe to move on from him uh as they do draft Hayden Connor, an interior offensive lineman in the sixth round out of Texas. And then I also listed as an addition Jonah Williams who signed a free agent contract last year coming over from Cincinnati. Uh he missed most of last season. He played 31% of snaps for this team and he is healthy and out there right now as their right tackle. So, I did just leave it as neutral. Um, but some notes there on the offensive line, but let’s go ahead and go through this group. It is to me a very solid offensive line uh that sets the floor for this offense, allows them to do what they want to do. But this is not necessarily a group like some of these other offensive lines that has a bunch of high investments and crazy upside and a unit that, you know, if things go right, this could be a game-changing top 10 offensive line for the Cardinals. they chose to look on defense and I get why they did that, but it is a unit that I would have loved to see one more exciting piece dropped into the mix here. Um, but again, it’s it’s it’s not the end of the world. They rank 19th for overall offensive line with a C++ grade and really C++ grades across the board. For pass blocking, they rank 14th to 22nd, so very solid in that kind of just perfectly average cluster of rankings for the league. And then for run blocking, they rank 18th. So perhaps not quite as much to say about this offensive line as some others, but let’s go ahead and go through these guys individually. The one exciting piece is Paris Johnson at left tackle. Now heading into year three, he is the one guy with the upside, the former first round pick that could very much take that next and potentially final step into being an an elite left tackle or at least a superstar left tackle. I think he has been a hit as a first round pick. He is, I think, every bit looking like a franchise left tackle. There is not a low floor by any stretch of the imagination. The floor is quite high with what we’ve seen from Paris Johnson. Um, but can he improve his efficiency? Can he be um, you know, take one more step as a run blocker and really be uh, a superstar left tackle? I think we could see that this year and and that would maybe help this offensive line be like the 15th or 14th best offensive line if Paris can take that leap. Um how he can take that leap, obviously just repetition is going to help any young offensive lineman, but specifically I would love to see him add just a little bit more functional play strength to his game. I don’t think he has poor play strength. I think he has average play strength and I think that shows number one is in his ability to drive bigger defensive linemen off the ball where I think he he labors to do it a little bit more than some other stronger offensive linemen. Um but more specifically in his anchor as a pass blocker that is if you’re going to beat Paris Johnson um which he will take the occasional loss for example he finished 21st in pass blocking efficiency among tackles last year which is again very good top half of the league for starters but he was 30th on true pass sets where he is exposed more to open runways for pass rushers and the bull rush specifically where I do think you see Paris Johnson um give up some ground and he can he can you know have that hop set and he can reset and he can hang in there for dear life but if he could have a little bit more junk in the trunk and a little bit more push back power when he does face the bull rush uh not only is it going to help him against the bull rush but it’s going to help him be much more comfortable facing counter moves and everything else he’s going to see. So again, I think he’s a good player. You’re very happy to have him, but for a 23-year-old, um, can he add just a little bit more functional play strength to take that next step? We see this in tackles all the time, just needing to get a little bit stronger young in their career. Would love to see that from Paris Johnson. Uh, but next to him, you got Evan Brown, who you’re hoping will be your weak link, depending on what Isaiah Adams can do in year two. Uh, but yeah, Evan Brown has bounced around the league. He started for this is his third team getting like legitimate playing time. Detroit, Seattle, Arizona. He has been just like very very weak to week frankly in every single stop and in both phases frankly he uh played well in terms of not allowing too many pressures last year for this team. He does have good play strength. He’s a decent athlete but a guy that really does like have his fair share of losses in every phase. whether it’s letting a guy cross his face in pass protection or kind of like whipping on a block, getting his head over his skis, um being unbalanced or missing assignments in the run game or or just failing to pick up stunts in pass protection, too. Like just again, tape is just all over the place on Evan Brown. But his efficiency is that of a very low-end starting caliber guy that some teams would preferably have as kind of a swingman on the inside. So, that’s definitely someone you’re hoping will be your weakest link. Um, at center you have Yi Frolt, one of the underrated offensive linemen in the league. They picked him up from New England. Uh, just a nasty athletic, just of a center. Love his run blocking tape. Doesn’t always have the best athletic twitch or the best play strength to, you know, assert his will in the run game, but he can really block every single scheme. He can be a good puller for them. He can create a little bit of drive if they want to run inside. Uh just a very nice run blocker in pass protection. The technique is still coming along. He’s shown year-to-year improvements. You could even argue that the up arrow should be pointing up on Hi Frhalt. We’ll see if there’s even more to be unlocked here and he can climb into more of that top five to eight center conversation in the NFL. But he is a top half starter in the league. is a very good piece for this team and has become a very uh beneficial contract for the Cardinals as well due to his low draft pedigree. He only costs this team about five $6 million a year which is really good price for a starting center. So I’m a fan of him as your center. I I would say he is their second best piece. And then you have Isaiah Adams who you’re hoping can emerge as your third or fourth best piece here. third round pick last year and I was back and forth on this draft pick as a thirdrounder um because I did have a sixth round grade on Isaiah Adams, but in my draft analysis of him, I was open and honest about the fact that I watched him as a tackle at Illinois and he was a nasty athletic run blocker as a tackle. So, I was very curious to see him as a guard. I knew that his Cardinals tape was going to be the first time I watched Isaiah Adams as a guard and I liked what I saw. I think for a rookie making that position change inside even though he had played a little bit of guard at Illinois um in previous seasons, but um you know he had some missed assignments where he doesn’t necessarily know who to get climbing to that second level on those combo blocks or picking up stunts and stuff like there were the the occasional rookie moment with him. Um but in terms of just evaluating his ability to block dudes like I liked what I saw, man. And I definitely think giving him the starting job in year two now after he had to kind of earn it in year one, he kind of rotated and scratched for playing time until week 14. Uh he finally earned that starting job. So we don’t have a huge sample size on him yet, but I do see the upside and I did see flashes on tape of what they like in him. So, if he can kind of clean up the down consistency stuff and get even better as a pass protector, um especially because I do think the run blocking will come along with more repetition, uh I think they may have found a guy in the third round, but it’s it’s far from proven yet. And uh he’s going to be kind of your biggest wild card on this offensive line in terms of potential downside. Um because he did have some uglier moments in pass protection last year for sure. had some solid games, but out of those five starts, he had a pair of solid games against New England and Carolina, who don’t really have pass rushers. Um, and then when he went against any semblance of capable D lines, Seattle gave up four pressures, the Rams gave up three pressures, the Niners gave up two pressures. So, like, um, just again unproven, but you’re hoping for a step in year two. Still though, a chance he can be your your weakest link. Um, and then you got Jonah Williams coming back at right tackle. Uh, just kind of the the most basic um, plugandplay average starting right tackle you could think of. Not the biggest guy, not the strongest guy, not the most athletic guy. So, he’s going to get overwhelmed at times and he’s got to stay healthy. But, uh, did play well for this team in the like six starts that he did get. It’s not like you got some massive contract or you’re trying to tell yourself that Jonah Williams is anything other than he is here. And if he’s your third or fourth guy on an offensive line, typically that’s going to be uh solid average production from that spot. The nice thing with the Cardinals though is if Jonah Williams does get banged up, Kelvin Beichchum might be an even better pass blocker as the backup off the bench. Kelvin Beichchum is one of the perennially underrated offensive linemen in the league. hasn’t been able to kind of earn that starting role uh at least year to year and get that nice contract, but Arizona is able to retain him here. And I think a big part of that is he is abysmal run blocker. He’s one of the more awkwardly built offensive linemen. Uh he’s like all legs and I think he definitely struggles to kind of get leverage in the run game, but he can really settle in as a pass blocker. He he is, you know, kind of inarguably a more efficient pass blocker than Jonah Williams. And that’s really why going back to the offseason changes graphic, I didn’t even list this as upgraded with getting hopefully, you know, more playing time from Jonah Williams than this team got last year is cuz Kelvin Beichum was able to step in and they still got pretty good play there. So, you’re kind of just right back to getting baseline adequate starting play from your right tackle spot there, which is fine. I do think in the future, maybe as early as this upcoming draft, I would love to see this team get more of a franchise tackle to establish more of a cornerstone duo. Um, I thought it would have been fun if they they if they targeted like uh Josh Simmons out of Ohio State with the O line coach coming over from from Ohio State, Paris Johnson also from Ohio State. But uh they obviously don’t go that route, which is fine. But I do think in the future that that could be a big position and need for this team. But keep an eye on Christian Jones and his development this year. I liked Christian Jones quite a bit coming out of Texas. Had a day two grade on him. They end up getting him in the fifth round. Athletic dude with all the traits to be a starting tackle in the NFL. A soccer background. I liked his tape at Texas. He ends up getting the start at right tackle week 18. Saw some Nick Bosa. Uh gave up zero pressures in pass protection. Uh which was really encouraging. So, I think they probably feel like, you know, okay, we got to really address the defense and let’s just see what Christian Jones can give us in year two here. Maybe they they could steal like a Braxton Jones or Rasheed Walker type of, you know, starting caliber tackle on day three of the draft if, you know, if it’s going to happen, you know, I think Christian Jones is the type of prospect, the caliber of prospect that could achieve that. So, we’ll we’ll see what he can do here if he gets any opportunities. Um, but then you get into your interior offensive line depth and I don’t feel very good about it. Maybe Christian Jones could play some guard there if he had an injury as well. Um, but John Gaines was an athlete, developmental athlete several years ago on day three. They they spent the sixth round pick on Hayden Connor who was a good pass protector at Texas, not so much a run blocker. Royce Newman, you don’t want him out there. Cardinals fans telling you that as a Packers fan, he is horrible. I hope he does not make this team for Cardinals fans sake. He can do some stuff in the run game, but not a good player. Nick Leette got some starts with those Tom Brady Bucks teams and he’s probably your best bet in terms of pass protection, at least proven pass protection in terms of depth. And then Jake Kieran had to play some for the Bears last year. Brutal watch in pass pro but can move some guys in the run game. So the interior O line depth does scare me a little bit. Hopefully Evan Brown and Isaiah Adams can work out for them. Um but yeah, I think you can see how you end up with a pretty solid offensive line. Not a ton of questions outside of Isaiah Adams, but not a ton of upside either really outside of Paris Johnson, a unit that was just okay last year, and you’re probably expecting pretty similar results this year, if not a little bit better. You do, however, have to at least mention that this team does get a boost from their skill blockers. Trey McBride is an excellent run blocker. Tip Raymond, I think in year two, can do some really special stuff. Uh, even Elijah Higgins off the wing blocks his ass off even if he’s not a traditional tight end. Marvin Harrison Jr. who’s already pretty solid as a rookie, but could he be even better uh putting on those 11 pounds? Michael Wilson’s a good run blocking receiver. Like I kind of mentioned, the Cardinals have a developed a bit of an ass kicker mentality. Uh, and that carries all the way through to the way that they block on the perimeter. So, they are inside the top five for the best uh run blocking skill players in the league, which does give the final run blocking ranking a bit of a boost and helps them land with that 18th spot for run blocking. But that rounds out your Cardinals offense, which comes in ranking 15th in the NFL for me, 10th in overall run game, 20th in passing game. And I definitely think they have potential to finish as a top 10 offense. If Kyler can play better, if Marv can take that next step, if the offensive line can maybe get a little bit better, there are pockets of upside with this team to be um certainly a a playoff caliber offense that can make some noise this year. But now we turn our eyes to the defense. And as we begin with the defensive line, this is where I am maybe most excited to at least talk about the Arizona Cardinals. Uh because I’ve seen some people say, “Hey, how are the Cardinals so low?” Seahawks fans especially have come out and been like, “Hey, we’re at least better than the Cardinals.” Well, go put your money where your mouth is, by the way, Seahawks fans, because Vegas has the Cardinals higher in odds to win this division than you guys. Anyway, um some people think I have the Cardinals ranked too high, and this is what I keep pointing to here. The changes with this defensive line from last year to this year are, I think, unlike anything I’ve ever seen for an individual unit. I don’t remember an individual unit, especially a position like defensive line where it’s made up of, you know, four starters. Um, I don’t remember a unit getting this upgraded from one season to the next where they are going from last year, this was arguably the worst defensive line in the league with various literal Canadian football league talent like Jesse Lucada last year played like 20% of their snaps. He is currently playing in the CFL. a bunch of random kind of journeyman practice squad caliber pickups that filled out this defensive line that had to play last year because of all the injuries and that it wasn’t that good of a unit to begin with. The additions here are eyeopening. So just on the interior of the defensive line alone, here are their additions. Dalvin Tomlinson from Cleveland who gets a sizable free agent contract. Walter Nolan, first round prospect. Kus Campbell makes his return to Arizona, who continued to play well for the Dolphins last year at 39 years old. A true ageless wonder. Darius Robinson, their first round pick last year, had effectively a wasted rookie season. U got on the field very late and clearly was not 100%, only played 17% of snaps last year. And then their two big free agent additions last year. I think they spent about 50 million on these two guys combined. Justin Jones and Bal Nichols. Well, Justin Jones played three games last year, 9% of their snaps. He’s back, at least for now. And Bal Nichols also they gave a good amount of money to. He only played 16% of their snaps last year as well. So all of the investments they made, Justin Jones, Bal Nichols, and Darius Robinson were unavailable for them. they get those guys back and add three key pieces. That’s just the interior of the defensive line. So, that is three starting rotations worth of players. Any six of those names right there. If you said they were starting on an NFL team, I wouldn’t really question it. They’re all to different talent levels, as we’ll see in just a second. But that’s six starting caliber additions to this defensive line. And their quote unquote core losses are Kyus Tonga, who’s probably the best player that they’re losing, but he only played 20% of their snaps last year as like a rotational nose tackle. Roy Lopez heads to Detroit. He played 43% of their snaps last year, did not play well. And Naquin Jones played 24% of snaps, played okay, he heads to the Chargers, but like compared to those additions, it you don’t bat an eye. you know, those guys would not make the team with those six players coming in ahead of them. So, massively upgraded just on the interior of the defensive line. Then you go to the edge and it’s really the same story, you guys, where one of the core young players they were counting on to hopefully help that group out last year didn’t play for them. BJ Agelari goes down in like late July last year, I think it was, or early August. He didn’t play a snap for them. So, they get him back. But they also signed Josh Sweat to a large free agent contract about $20 million a year. Um then you also have to factor in Baron Browning who was a trade deadline acquisition for this team that took a few weeks after that to really get substantial playing time for this team. Really only played the final four or five games but looked good in those games for the Cardinals. Enough to earn a contract extension with this team but he only played 21% of their snaps. So, he is an addition to this version of this Cardinals team compared to last year. He was mostly unavailable for them last year. And then, yeah, they spent a third round pick on Jordan Burch. A bit of a reach in my opinion. Um, but major additions on the edge. Whereas their only losses are, yeah, Dennis the Menace, Dennis Gardic, fun player because they’ve had nobody else to rush the passer here, but he got hurt last year and he only played 19% of their snaps last year. But he is no longer with this team. I think he signed with Jacksonville and then it was kind of all these bottom of the barrel journeyman practice squad guys. Julian Aquarez bounced around the league. He played a quarter of their snaps. Victor Decki leaves. Uh Jesse Licada as you mentioned um I guess that number was uh 17%. So maybe not as much as I said earlier but uh still playing in the CFL right now and he was a part of their rotation on the edge. So massively upgraded in the edge group as well. This team is going from one of the worst defensive lines I’ve ever seen or had to watch that this team had to actively scheme around every single snap to having, you know, a real NFL defensive line that as we head into the start of this season, I have ranked 20th for overall defensive line. The pass rush is still down there, 23rd to 25th, but still better than what they had last year. Substantially better where they were probably 32nd after all those injuries. a long way from any sort of competency. And then for the Dline run defense, with all this depth and a bunch of guys that can defend the run, they rank inside the top 10 for me for Dline run defense with this unit. I think they’re going to be really damn good from that perspective. But let’s try and get through all of these different names. Um so you you are effectively going to have eight or nine quote unquote starters on this defensive line. Um, you know, Jonathan Ganon has talked a lot about this, especially coming from Philly where when he was there, they had seven or eight guys that they really rotated as starters for the most part. Um, so identifying like who your four starters are in this this front four, like it’s kind of a moot point. There are a bunch of names that you have to discuss here. Um, but of course, I only had so much room on the graphic to put five names up there. So, I do have kind of as the maybe best or most exciting five starters here, Josh Sweat and Baron Browning off the edge with Dvin Tomlinson, Walter Nolan, and Darius Robinson as the interior guys there. But let’s just go through the edge first and then we’ll go to the interior players. You have Josh Sweat, the big free agent contract. I think you feel very good about what you’re getting in his game, which is um a a high-end number two caliber edge rusher who unfortunately, yes, here is going to have to be this team’s best overall um certainly edge rusher and probably defensive lineman in general. That’s why we have them ranked 23rd to 25th for pass rush. Like, you don’t want a number two caliber guy to be your number one, but at least they have a number two guy. Whereas last year, I don’t even know that they had a bonafide number three. I mean, I guess saving Collins, but that that was the closest thing to it. But Josh Sweat has been very consistently himself for four or five years now. You know, you’re getting somewhere between 50 and 60 pressures most likely. Uh you’re going to get somewhere close to double digit sacks, someone that can win with a little bit of power, but mostly with speed around the edge, and he wins with his hands and effort, and he’s a pretty good run defender with good length. He’s a very good player. well worth the $20 million uh to pay him for any team. That’s a good contract. Um I thought he might have gotten even more on the open market, but Cardinals obviously desperate as they are, very happy to get him in there. So, you know what you’re getting there. It’s a huge upgrade to get that player into the mix here. But then you have Baron Browning, I think, is the next uh the next most exciting edge rusher here. He is definitely a wild card for this team because I don’t think we know yet what Baron Browning is. someone that played linebacker at Ohio State, played linebacker in his first year for the Broncos, but moved off to the edge for Denver and immediately looked not Micah Parsonsesque um but you know, comparisons to a Micah Parsons as a guy that was a linebacker with with really pass rushing traits with length and speed. Um and similar story where they put him out on the edge and very quickly he was out there winning with spin moves and rip moves around the corner and actually having a pass rush tool belt which was a pleasant surprise for a guy getting converted to edge linebacker. Unfortunately, he dealt with a lot of injuries in Denver and they found other guys that they liked obviously with guys like Bonito and Cooper and didn’t feel like they were going to extend Baron Browning. So, they trade him at the deadline to Arizona and Arizona very quickly found their best pass rusher off the edge. Um, well, I can’t say very quickly. They they took a couple weeks to kind of get him acclimated with the team, but down the stretch he he showed as exciting football as as we’ve seen from Baron Browning and he ends up on just 136 pass rush snaps getting 20 pressures. So, the baseline for a starting caliber edge is a 10% pressure rate. He was at about 18% there, screaming off the edge. But not just that, this is a guy that has an inside spin move counter with the best of him when he hits it. There’s no doubt that he has the speed to bend athletic ability to threaten the corner and you also can see him win with a bull rush from time to time. So, um, he was a spark plug for this defense and they were really excited to get him going and they give him a kind of two-year prove it deal. He’s got to stay healthy. He’s missed time seemingly every single year. Uh even last year, that might be a part of why Denver moved on from him because early in the year he was he was banged up. He missed a few games. Um and they were just ready to move on. So he’s got to stay healthy, but he has really exciting potential to be I think a a high number two caliber pass rusher. Like I think you think about like Hassan Reic is a a fun parallel. Obviously, Reic went elsewhere and became a much better edge rusher for other teams after being a first round pick for the Cardinals, but a former linebacker, converted edge. Um, but just just in the way that they win and the upside to be kind of that, you know, more of a number one caliber pass rusher, frankly, in in his prime, uh, Hassan Reic for a couple years there produced like one. I I think it’s in there for Baron Browning. And the linebacker background shows, too, like he actually defends the run and can shed blocks. like he’s a really high upside player. Um but he’s just he’s had some roadblocks getting there. So he is a real wild card if he can become this team’s best defensive lineman, which I think is theoretically possible for him. Certainly not likely. Maybe 10% 5% chance that happens, but it’s not impossible either. And again, he doesn’t have to be that. They have a bunch of other dudes here that will rotate. But it’s something to keep an eye on here. It’s a big year for Baron Browning. and he signed a 2-year deal for a reason cuz he wants to prove himself and be up for a new contract very soon. But then you have Xavan Collins who just gets to settle into the perfect role for him. Whereas last year he had to be this team’s best pass rusher off the edge uh and true number one. Now he gets to just do what he does well, eat up a bunch of early down snaps where he is frankly one of the better rundefending edge rushers in the league. Plus, he has the added coverage dropping element because of his former experience as a linebacker going back to Toledo where he was I mean, he was a legitimately good prospect as a coverage linebacker for one reason or another. They’ve seen him as an edge rusher and I still think he could have a future as a linebacker if someone wanted him to play him there in a certain system. But, um, they like what he’s shown off the edge for the early down stuff, but now he gets to do that, provide an impact with what he does do. so well without the downside of a guy that doesn’t really have the athletic twitch or pass rushing tool belt to get after the quarterback on third downs. And perhaps we do see them put him out there as like a blitzing mugged up, you know, a gap linebacker and do some creative stuff with him because I think there could be a role for him there where he does have legitimate coverage dropping ability and blitzing ability. Um, but even if they don’t do that, I love him now as maybe the best I mean I mean he he very well could be in the conversation for who the best most practical kind of edge three is in the league. So that’s really fun. And then at this point like they’ve set it up where anything you get from BJ Agelari is house money. I I thought he showed flashes in his rookie season. not a guy that projects as a superstar pass rusher, but I think has the pass rushing tool belt and bag of tricks, if you will, to um, you know, be a nice number two rusher. He kind of won with a little bit of everything at LSU, but was never dominant with any one thing, but clearly was a guy that appreciated the art of pass rushing and had a bunch of different ways to win. Just doesn’t necess necessarily have the physical traits to dominate with any one move, but he kind of keeps you guessing. He’s kind of like a pitcher in baseball that doesn’t have a 95 plus mph fast ball, but wins with location and skill. Um, so I I think Aelari can be a useful part of your pass rush and it’ll be fun to see what he can do. And then they spent a fifth round pick on Jordan Burch. I I just was not a fan of Jordan Burch. I know he did have some people that liked him in the draft. Obviously the Cardinals did. They spent a third round pick on him. He was a sixth round grade for me. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see any semblance of skill. He tested well and has the length he looked for. I think ideally he can thump and play some early down run defense for you and maybe he can develop his bull rush. He was he was interesting cuz you know he he just kind of tried to win with a cross chop off the edge even though he’s I know he tested well but he doesn’t really have the twitch and bend to pull that move off. You wanted to see Jordan Burch just fly off the ball and get into a bull rush at his size and he didn’t really do that. So maybe coaching can totally rework his game, but he is already an older prospect as well. He turns 24 in October, so like clearly I just wasn’t that big of a fan of that pick and I would love to be wrong, but fortunately they don’t need to get too much from him. Uh they do have Xavier Thomas as well who has a ton of twitch. Um had some flashes in his rookie season, but you know, really going back to Clemson, you know, Xavier Thomas, it’s been all about the flashes. putting the consistency together has been his main issue. But now he goes from someone that kind of had to play and you were hoping could get after the quarterback last year to now it’s like, hey, you got to kind of scratch and claw for a roster spot. And hopefully that development can come from him for a guy that was once, I think, the number one recruit in his high school class. So, a lot of traits there. Just hasn’t put it all together. Um, but that rounds on your edge group that is, you know, by league standards, I I would say a very solid edge room, maybe even above average. Compared to last year’s group, it’s a different league. And then you go to the interior where you got a little bit of everything here, and I like it. So, you got Dvin Tomlinson’s kind of your true threeown nose tackle type. He’s getting a little bit older, but he can still play and did play well for the most part in Cleveland last year. Uh, he he can get after the quarterback. He’s got a little bit of power. He’s even got a decent first step to kind of win with a rip move. Seen him do that. Uh and from a run defense standpoint, he’s going to hold his own. He’s he’s not the best most, you know, playmaking forward defensive tackle, but he’s a big body in the middle that that does a good enough job to try to keep his pad level down and eat up um eat up gaps so that everybody else can do their job. So, a nice necessary addition here because no one else could really do what he does. Uh so, I like the signing. But then you got Walter Nolan, your first round addition along the defensive line. Unfortunately, it seems he did get a little banged up. So, you’re hoping this isn’t a Darius Robinson situation from last year where he’s got a slow start and struggles to make an impact. Uh reminds me a little bit of Byron Murphy last year with that, too. And and his skill set, frankly, is similar to to what Byron Murphy was as a prospect, too. Um so, maybe Cardinals fans can update us a little bit more on his recent injury news, but it doesn’t sound like it’s too bad. Hopefully he can get out there within the first month and start um you know making an impact here. Uh but big fan of Walter Nolan. I think to get him in the first round where they got him was was honestly starting to become a value. I thought Walter Nolan anywhere from the ninth pick to the Saints to like the 15th pick. Any anything there would have made sense. And the Cardinals were picking 16th, right? Um so really a good addition. A true first round grade for me. Ton of traits. It’s It’s hard to find defensive tackles with the full package that he’s got. I mean, the twitch, the first step. Um, but really the bend at this position. You don’t talk a lot about bend for a defensive tackle. You hear that more with edge rushers, but his rip move, his ability to kind of attack your hip and underneath your shoulder and attack a point of leverage that a lot of offensive linemen just aren’t comfortable accessing. He’s good at that. And he’s he’s got the quickness to cross your face with that move. And then he’s got a bull rush as well. I would love to see Walter Nolan uh develop a cross chop because I think he has the ability to kind of watch Aaron Donald tape and he’s talked about coming out. Aaron Donald being someone he likes to watch a lot of. I I haven’t seen that cross chop on tape, but that was what Aaron Donald was so good at. So, I would love to see that move get unlocked for him because I think it’s in there. And if he adds a third pass rush move there, he can really be an impact there. And the nice thing about Walter Nolan, not not only does he have incredible traits, but his motor was tremendous. You know, chasing plays down backside, not letting plays die as a pass rusher, but as a run defender as well. Um, he he didn’t take plays off and that translated too. So, he’s he’s a really fun pick. You always want to be cautious with first round interior defensive linemen. This is one of those position groups where these guys have had a hard time stepping into the league and making a high-end impact for the most part, but uh we’ll see. It’s not like it can’t be done. I I see a lot of honestly like shades of Quinnon Williams in his game. And I think the chance for him to be the best defensive lineman on this roster is absolutely possible. And if he can emerge as more of your true number one with Sweat and Browning as number tw’s and Dalvin as a capable number four in that situation, like you could really start to get these guys to fall into the right sort of role or talent slot, if you will, uh, for building a high-end NFL defensive line. So, um, what they can get from Nolan as well is a wild card of sorts because of the upside, um, but potentially some of the downside, too, with the recent injury news, I suppose, and just being a rookie. But then with Darius Robinson, I mean, for all intents and purposes, the Cardinals are adding a whole another first round pick into this defensive line. Darius Robinson had a complete wasted season uh due to injuries, but early reports are good in camp. Don’t want to look too far into camp reports, but he seems healthy and like he’s going to be an impact on this defensive line and he’s important too because he does play some edge and he can really get out there with Zan Collins and you could have frankly one of the better rundefending edge duos for early downs next to a a collection of interior players that can stop the run as well and he can really make an impact in that sense. And when you have a guy like Jonathan Ganon that schemes up the pass rush so well on third down and now you have some guys that can actually come in in Josh Sweat and Baron Browning and win one-on-one reps where you don’t necessarily need that from Darius Robinson. When you have all these other pieces, the ability to stop the run can become more valuable in the sense that if you have a player like Darius Robinson that his pass rushing may or may not come along, it doesn’t hurt you as much if that makes sense. Um, so I’m really excited to see what Robinson can do. And it’s not to say that he can’t become much of a pass rusher. I mean, he had an awesome swim move at Missouri and maybe he’ll be able to win with that at a at a decent level at the NFL ranks. But, um, I think, you know, if he can develop more of a bull rush and a more diversified package of rush moves, getting to play a little bit more as a three technique, as a fourey, I don’t want to short sell his upside as a pass rusher as well. I don’t know that he is a tremendous athlete to be this, you know, kind of like what we talked about with Walter Nolan. Um, but can he become an impact as a fourth piece um for third downs? Yeah, absolutely. So, he’s a wild card as well in the sense that you’re basically plugging in two first round rookies. You know, you you are not basically like just about damn literally plugging in two new first round rookies here to this D line. So, that’s very exciting. And again, he’s going to play up and down this entire D line, play a little bit of edge for them. Um, as I would imagine, Kus Campbell will as well. And what the just perfect mentor for Darius Robinson. Campbell who has bounced around playing edge and interior depending on the scheme for 20 years in the NFL. Um, so I imagine those guys roles and the snaps that they’re going to play is damn near interchangeable. And we know Kas Campbell can still shut down the run, especially as an edge rusher, but even playing inside, as long as he’s not having to play nose tackle, which with Dvin Tomlinson here, he doesn’t have to play nose tackle. Frankly, in Miami last year, he had to take on some double teams with him and Zack Caler being their core interior Dlineman. So, you know, if anything, his workload or at least his, you know, the difficulty of what the Cardinals are going to ask him, if anything, even though he’s a year older than he was last year, he’s going to have easier tasks, I think, than what Miami needed from him. Um, but yeah, just a perfect spot for him to come and and presumably finish his career where it started with the Arizona Cardinals. I love this signing. He as well can still give you a little bit of something as your fourth piece as a pass rusher, something they didn’t have last year. He can still compress the pocket. He’s still this just like intimidating force. I mean, he he lines up next to all these guys as this 68 guy in the middle of your offensive line and and his length, the ability to swap passes and and just be a problem on stunts or whatever you want to do. Like, he’s a real piece. And he was the seventh guy we talked about, the eighth guy we talked about as a rotational starter. I mean, this gets really fun, man, when you’re talking about a defense that finished average last year with none of this. None of like literally none of this that we’ve talked about other than Zan Collins. This team had none of it. It’s crazy. Um, and then there’s two more frigin pieces here that they didn’t have last year. Justin Jones, who they needed to be like their best defensive tackle last year. They gave him, I think, a three or $30 million deal. nice balanced starter in Denver that they decided to let go, but now he’s a true backup rotational piece. And Bal Nichols, who does have some pass rushing juice on third downs, can get off some blocks and make some splash plays in the run game, but he’s always been a better uh, you know, pass rushing defensive tackle. I mean, those guys are your third line on the interior of the Dline now, and they might not even make this team. And then everybody gets bumped up here. I mean, Dante Stills was straight up this team’s best interior defensive lineman last year that actually had to play a full snap count. He as well plays some of that hybrid end stuff. A team that does play a lot of odd fronts and has that kind of fourey hybrid end spot. Um, but Dante Stills was like the fascinating piece that kind of earned a future on this team. I think now he’s like an afterthought basically, which is crazy. LJ Collier as well, former first round pick for the Seahawks. Same idea, that hybrid end. I mean, I think this is the perfect way to finish this conversation, you guys. So, last year, Zavan Collins led this team in pressures last year with 31 pressures. After him, the next leading pressure getters on this defense were LJ Collier, who might not make this team, had 29 pressures and four sacks, and Dante Stills had 22 pressures. That should tell you everything you need to know about how upgrade this group is. Um, and that that really rounds out this this conversation. I I’m I’m really fired up to see what Jonathan Ganon can do with not just a like a you know adequate like functional NFL level defensive line which he didn’t have last year. It was essentially all uers uh and practice squatterers and guys playing on other teams. Um not exaggerating there outside of Zen Collins run defense. They got nothing of note from that Dline. Now you have all of this to work with. The jump that this defense could make could be astronomical. And that is the core reason why I am higher higher on this Cardinals team in these power rankings. Um, but let’s go through the rest of this defense because there’s still some interesting stuff to talk about. I I I think because we spent so much time on the Dline there, we can go through the linebackers pretty quickly here. It’s it’s not a strength of this defense. I think the the Cardinals are lumped in with half the teams in the league at this point that are just hoping that this unit can be okay. And this unit was okay last year, but they’ve had some change with this unit. So, as you look at the offseason changes, they lose one of their starters, Kaiser White, uh, and Chris Barnes, who’s played a lot of meaningful snaps for this team over the last two years as well, uh, is out the door. And then they bring in Hakee Davis Gaither, who’s been an LB3 in Cincinnati, kind of waiting waiting on a starting opportunity. uh on a two-year $12 million contract. And then they add Cody Simon out of Ohio State in the fourth round. So, they’re mixing things up a little bit. Uh and right now, I have them ranked 25th for overall linebackers with a C-grade. It’s not a bad unit from a coverage standpoint, as we’ll talk about. They rank 15th to 17th with a C plus grade for coverage at the linebacker position. Uh and then the linebacker run defense ranks with a C-grade, 26th to 28th. So, a little bit more of a concern uh with the run defense with this group, but um M. Wilson is back and he definitely earned this opportunity to be their LB1. Really good, balanced veteran that has had a bit of a late uh career emergence here. Tell me if you’ve heard this before, former fourth round pick that figured things out in year five, year six. This to me is the um modern linebacker really is is the M Wilson’s of the world that this position is like damn near impossible to learn. And M. Wilson bounced around from Cleveland to New England to now here in Arizona where he has shown that he can do a little bit of everything for this team. Super physical dude, head hunter mentality. He was very much a part of this defense’s emphasis on playing fast and physical. He is a go-getter at the linebacker position sometimes to a fault. You know, you might see him vacate a gap or blow his own assignment trying to make a play in coverage, take the cheese on play action. Like, I am not trying to tell you M. Wilson is the perfect player, but he has definitely carved out a nice role and and he he showed it early in New England. Um, in a couple, you know, a couple years in New England, he got a decent amount of playing time and always stood out to me on film. Went to Arizona and I liked the signing. I was like, “Huh, he he he definitely popped for me.” So, it wasn’t a surprise that he kind of took this job by the horns and is now this team’s LB1 because he loves to hit. He’s good at getting off blocks. He’s a great blitzer. Um, just kind of does a little bit of everything for you. So, um, nice player, not going to move the needle for you. Uh, but then a Keem Davis Gaither, they’re they’re going to kind of see what they have in him on a two-year $12 million deal. Like I said, this is the modern approach at linebacker. find these guys on their second, third contracts um where they’ve had to play in the NFL game and learn NFL defenses. And Hakee Davis Gaither sat well he didn’t fully sit, you know, he rotated in as an LB3 behind a really good linebacker duo for for four years. I mean, he was behind Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt, uh who who were one of the better linebacker duos over the last four years, even if those guys had a down year last year. Um but Davis Gaither has basically only shown us flashes of play. We don’t know what he’s going to be as a full-time starter. A guy that kind of played that, you know, weak side linebacker, bandit safety almost type of role going back to his time at Appalachian State, but that gives him real upside here with really his first chance to prove what he’s got as an NFL linebacker. So, I I do not hate the process at all, but it does create some uncertainty at this linebacker position of if he can handle the true three down duties of an LB2. So, we’ll see what they can get there. If Davis Gaither is good, this could end up being a very solid, capable linebacker duo to be honest. Um, and again, from a coverage standpoint, you got a guy with speed and former safety background that when he’s played as a third down linebacker, he’s made some plays for the Bengals. There’s plenty of reason to believe he can be a good coverage linebacker in Davis Gaither. And M. Wilson, who’s maybe a little bit more boomer bust, but he does, you know, a couple times a year like make some really impactful plays, jumping routes and reading the quarterback’s eyes and stuff. So, um, it it is kind of a fun duo. It’s just relatively unproven between the two of them. Um, but they do have pretty solid depth, uh, by NFL standards or at least interesting depth. You know, Owen Papo 44 speed coming out of Auburn. no idea what he was doing coming out, but did get on the field in in a in a few spots last year and made some plays in coverage. Um, with that speed, like that’s, you know, an asset for him. So, if he’s developing and getting better at all of the other linebacker stuff, you might uh be interested if Hakee Davis Gaither struggles or if M. Wilson isn’t quite what we think he is. Uh after really his first year as a starter in the league last year, um then yeah, Papo could get interesting. But if nothing else, as a special teamer and continuing to develop, that’s that’s fine. Cody Simon, a fourth round pick out of Ohio State, another mid-round pick that I wasn’t a huge fan of for this Cardinals team. I just don’t really see the upside with Simon, you know, fourth round on a guy like this that I think is just kind of a career backup linebacker, lacks the the traits to be an impact player at this position in my opinion. I I just I think there were better players to be drafted at that point in time, but um a lot of experience. He’s more of an aggressive seball getball type of linebacker as well. Kind of a poor man’s M Wilson, just not quite as physically gifted. So, as a backup to that, that’s fine. Um but again, a little bit rich for a fourth round pick in my opinion. Uh Michael Walker seems like he’s on a new team every year uh after he was really good as a rookie. He’s had the inverse of what most day three rookie linebackers have um where they struggle early and incrementally get better. Michael Walker seemed to play really well early and has gotten incrementally worse every year. U but he continues to bounce around. And then the Cardinals clearly liked what they saw in the backup linebacker room in Tampa Bay because both JJ Russell and Vi Jones have played a little bit and shown some flashes. They both come over from Tampa Bay and are going to be competing for roster spots. So there’s your linebacker room. Again, they are hoping that this is going to be one of the many linebacker rooms in the league where you’re just hoping that it’s a group that doesn’t drag you down. I think this is the approach most of the league is taking where don’t spend too much money or too much draft capital at this position. Try to land somewhere between the 14th and 28th best linebacker room and you should be just fine. What you don’t want is to be in the bottom three and have a linebacker room that has no idea what they’re doing and are constantly out of position at the second level and can be a real problem for you. I don’t think that’s going to be this Cardinals linebacker unit. I don’t. But they also aren’t going to elevate this defense most likely. But let’s go to this Cardinals secondary. You know, we’re obviously extremely excited about the Cardinals defensive line and the ch the the changes they made with that unit. Um, but this Cardinals secondary could be really fun, too. So, you look at their offseason changes and at cornerback, I said this unit should be hopefully upgraded as well from what they had last year. And by the way, I forgot to mention the linebacker I did say was slightly downgraded from last year. Um, but yeah, I think quarterback hopefully upgraded as Shawn Murphy Bunting did go down with a non-OOT injury. Uh, he did play 75% of their snaps last year. I believe he is expected to miss this entire season. Um, and probably will be released after that, I would imagine, but it’s not like he played all that well for this team last year. But he is a loss playing time-wise compared to what he played last year. Uh, and then they draft Will Johnson in the second round. Really one of the more exciting picks outside of the first round in the entire draft. We’ll talk about him. And then they did also spend a fifth round pick on Denzel Burks. So, I think there is reason to hope that Will Johnson here can outplay what they got from Shawn Murphy Bunting last year in terms of this group being hopefully upgraded from what it was last year, not to mention a pair of young corners next to Will Johnson. So, this is going to be one of the younger quarterback trios in the league. Um, let’s start right there with Will Johnson, their second round pick. Although, I didn’t mention the safety room is staying neutral. Very minimal change here. They lose nobody and add Katon Crawford out of Nevada in the seventh round. But Will Johnson was a first round predicted mock draft pick through and through up until maybe a couple weeks leading up to the draft. There started to be some more questions maybe about his health and potential like long-term durability questions. And I think those did stem from his proday that he did about a week before the draft and did not run his 40 time and even came out with a surprisingly poor shuttle time. Whereas you watch him on tape and Will Johnson, you would think that would be his strength for a taller corner. His lateral agility, his fluid hips was a strength on tape. And that’s kind of what that drill is all about. So maybe some questions about if he is as healthy as you want to be drafting a rookie. uh and if there’s going to be some durability concerns with him long term. So, that’s kind of the main question on Will Johnson, but no doubt this team stole a true first round talent in the middle of the second round. Now, his fall was so steep that it’s going to raise some eyebrows and create some uncertainty here, but for now, he’s out there. By all accounts, he’s healthy. By all accounts, the Cardinals weren’t as worried about his knee. And when he fell to them in the second round, they were like, “Why is everybody freaking out about this?” Like, we had our team doctor look at this. We had a first round grade on him. We thought about taking him at 16, but Walter Nolan was there. We will absolutely take him in the second round. So, the Cardinals will tell you they got an extra, you know, 30 draft slots um getting to take Will Johnson in the second round. But the most exciting thing, honestly, is that Will Johnson is a perfect scheme fit. I I think if there were any sort of concerns about his ability to play press man coverage because maybe the long speed isn’t all that great. I didn’t think his long speed was as bad as some others out there suggested. I think he would have ran about a 445 which is totally playable for a taller corner like him. Um but there were some people that were worried about him getting stacked on tape. um again wasn’t me but uh getting to play this offzone Fangio inspired defense basically exactly what he did at Michigan in a Mike McDonald Jesse Miner inspired defense that ran a lot of the same coverages and his IQ with his eyes on the quarterback to anticipate routes to jump those those throws towards the sideline um whether it’s a hitch or an out route I mean he had all those pick sixes at Michigan um really an instinctive quick twitch corner that if he’s healthy, I totally think they stole a potential high-end starting number one corner in the second round here. So, you know, hopefully he can stay healthy, but man, am I excited for him to get dropped into this secondary and for him to have a clear-cut opportunity with the injury to um uh Shawn Murphy Bunting because he might not have been locked into a starting role like he kind of is right now, frankly, had Murphy Bunting not gotten hurt. Not not to pile on bunting getting hurt like that obviously sucks for him. But from Will Johnson’s perspective and maybe even for the Cardinals sake this could have been better cuz we know these teams do prefer to go with the veterans. But I want to talk about Garrett Williams next because he as well is one of the underrated ascending star players on this Cardinals team. He was sensational last year in what was in many way his his first year and this is another example of the Cardinals taking a risk on a player that fell in the draft due to injury concerns um and it paying off for them. So, they’re hoping for a similar result with Will Johnson, obviously. But Garrett Williams was coming off an ACL injury and wasn’t able to play until very late in his rookie season, but he was still young, played an offzone system at Syracuse and was really an instinctive playmaking zone corner with good athletic traits. um but showed some flashes in his rookie season, but last year starting all all season as their kind of slot chest piece kind of star corner by the name of the role. Um we you know these defenses call that starting nickel corner their star apex defender. Um so being that role for this team, he was a monster dude. changed games with the the the high leverage interceptions and pass breakups and had a forced fumble in there. Um just making really spectacular plays. It’s not like he had a super high volume of breaking up balls. You know, he had two interceptions, six pass breakups. Very good, but not like insane. It’s not like Brian Branch numbers or anything like that. Um but just seemed like every time the Cardinals needed a play, the car Garrett Williams found a way to make it. And I think when you’re in that that slot position, I I do think that counts for something because you’re going to be in a position where you can lurk and kind of bait the QB and pick your pick your spots to kind of take risks. And he’s really good at that. He’s very physical. He defends the run. He’s still getting used to it, I think, because he was an outside corner at Syracuse. I think in terms of filling the run and getting off blocks, there’s still room for him to to go there, but there’s no doubt about his willingness to play the run from the slot. And he is a lynchpin in terms of the schematic flexibility that uh Jonathan Ganon brings because they’ll like they’ll rotate him into a cover two shell um from the slot. They’ll they’ll play him all over the field. Just a truly versatile chess piece for this defense. and he you you got to know who Garrett Williams is because I think this season is the year that he really supplants himself as one of the star defensive backs and this time we are talking about superstar defensive backs in the league. Um not not quite proven there yet. It’s a volatile position and it was really just one season of this. But I I do think the tape was damn good and we’re heading that way for him, which is particularly exciting when we broke down Will Johnson as a, you know, potential number one guy outside of Garrett Williams, which could make them really the the perfect compliment to each other. But then you got Max Melton as your CB3 here. I I do think when they’re in base, it will probably be Garrett Williams and Will Johnson. Max Melton not very good against the run and just not as good of an overall player and Garrett Williams can play outside corner if you need him to in those base three four defenses but in their nickel packages which uh I think they probably want to be in more of like I think they probably will feel better about being able to stop the run with you know nickel defenses because of an improved defensive line this year. So, um, yeah, I think when they’re in nickel, Max Melton will come on the field. And he was very, very streaky in his rookie season. I think the highs were there. Uh, some of the plays on the ball, the speed, the ability to prevent getting stacked over the top that was there. And then you also saw some of the the the late reaction times, some of the questionable technique at times, a little bit slender at the catch point. Like there’s downsides to Max Melton, too. but young player that I I think did show enough flashes as a rookie to put the up arrow on him and and you know, you don’t need him to become a superstar, but can he become more of a streaky playmaking, frisky number three corner to kind of round out this young quarterback trio? Yeah, I think that’s much more reasonable than to come out and say, “Oh my god, Max Melton has this crazy upside to be this, you know, superstar number three corner.” or like no, I I think much more realistically you get a stable starter out of him. Uh second round pick, that would be an okay result. I you know, if we see more consistency from him, we can start to have conversations about him being more of a stud. But uh I I certainly think when you have a Will Johnson and a Garrett Williams and a safety duo that we got to talk about here, if Max Melton can turn into a solid player and be your weakest link, quote unquote, that would be still really, really good. Um, we can wrap up the quarterback depth pretty quickly, frankly. You know, Star Thomas is a player I like. A frisky, undersized, instinctive guy. Um, but he’s versatile. I I like him now as a CB4. And he played pretty well in a starting role last year for Kaitro. Clark has had to play a little bit here, but he’s struggled much more than someone like Star Thomas. Very small, very slender, but can make some plays from off zone. But then you got Elijah Jones who’s going to have to kind of scratch and claw back into the picture here. Was a late third round pick last year and a very talented one at that. He’s got traits for days, man. But he unfortunately suffered an ankle injury in camp and then spent the season on the IR and he’s stashed pretty deep on the Cardinals projection in terms of who’s getting camp reps and that kind of stuff. So, I I would like to see him get some opportunities and see what he can look like because I think the physical traits are there. But, uh could be could be out of the picture already. You know, a late third round pick is kind of the range where teams can forget about you pretty quick as long as they find other options. And right now, you know, Star Thomas took advantage of that opportunity with Elijah Jones getting hurt and they like these young guys ahead of him. So, I don’t know how much we’ll see from Elijah Jones. Then you got Denzel Burke, fifth round pick out of Ohio State. not the most physically gifted guy. Um, but I I did think he was physical and a smart player. You know, it’s not that he never played zone at Ohio State, but I, you know, more of a veteran man than zone in my opinion on tape. Some of the anticipation and stuff was lacking. So, they’re going to have to coach him up, but if if he’s a smart player with with a good work ethic, he could get there. Not the worst use of a fifth round pick. Um, then yeah, I mean, Shawn Murphy Bunting, we’re not expecting to see this year. They got four other guys kind of competing for roster spots. Going to be tough though with the guys ahead of them. But then this is all really being said before we mention that the Cardinals do have one of the better and certainly more proven safety duos in the league with Buddha Baker and Jaylen Thompson who I honestly I like to just talk about these guys together because they are the same freaking player. Buddha does it a little bit better, especially from a run defense standpoint. But even even in coverage, I I think he’s been the more consistently stable coverage defender. Jaylen even though uh even though Jaylen is the one that has had the quote unquote better production over the years in terms of interceptions finding his way. But man, both these guys are heat seeeking missiles. 44 speed. I don’t even know what these guys ran, frankly. But I know what the tape has told me for years on these guys. There might not be a safety duo in the league that is faster to the football. Um, just in terms of relentless pursuit of the ball carrier, whether it’s a bubble screen or a ball that gets caught underneath or in the run game. These guys are heat-seeking missiles, man. And I love that about them. They’re they’re stable tacklers, good technique, but they they, you know, bring the hammer when they hit as well. And Buddha Baker especially, he is the heartbeat of this defense. This defense, even if Buddha has not had the ball production, he has no interceptions in the last two years. Um, but even if even if he doesn’t have that, the whole idea that this team plays hard and even if they don’t have the best pass rush or the stickiest coverage, they’re not going to let you get a bunch of yards after the catch. They’re at least going to make it feel like it sucks to play them. Everybody is modeling their play style after Buddha Baker on this defense and for him to be the guy that you know, yeah, once upon a time he was kind of asking to not be a part of the of the rebuild and get traded and a lot of those guys come with kind of divaesque um narratives about them. And maybe Diva is is a little too harsh for other guys that have demanded trades, but certainly a lot of guys would not stick around in Arizona. Um because Arizona didn’t really succumb to his trade requests. They said, “No, you’re you’re a huge part of, you know, what we’re trying to build here. We need you.” Um and he still played as hard the last two years as any player in the NFL. you you could raise any player in terms of effort and just a constant fire burning inside this player. Nobody nobody runs as hot as Buddha Baker. And for him to do that despite kind of not wanting to be here at first is he deserves the utmost praise for that. So um and then you get a guy like Jaylen Thompson that continues to play with that mentality next to him. You know, these guys haven’t had the best ball production. They maybe aren’t the most instinctive coverage defenders in terms of changing games with plays on the back end, but consistently impacting the game by making their presence felt and preventing big plays both in coverage and in run support. Really, really a a core aspect of this defense that deserves a lot of praise. That rounds out this secondary really, really well. Um, and then you have Drien Taylor Demerson, who they drafted in Buddha Baker’s image. same exact idea. Eventually, between him and Jaylen Thompson, who again is in this image, you know, one of these guys is going to get hurt. Are they going to have to lose one of these guys to free agency or or um you know, Buddha Baker turns 30 years old. He might regress like they wanted another guy. They didn’t want to lose what they have on the back end. And Adrien Taylor Dmerson as a rookie, yeah, you know, he might have dealt with some coverage busts and some imperfection when he did have to play last year, but you did see the same exact, you know, player, if nothing else, a young Jaylen Thompson in Drien Taylor Demerson. So, that’s looking like a really fun draft pick for them as well. Really just depth and a dime back for now. And he can be a useful dimeback for sure. Um, and just kind of try to be more of a ball hawk in that role for now in kind of the PJ Williams role, if you will, if if they want to get into dime packages. But, uh, you know, really, really exciting depth certainly. Uh, beyond that, they take Kon Crawford, really athletic dude, physically speaking, in that same mold. Much more unproven tape, I think, than than like uh DTD did in college. Uh, but if they can coach him up, maybe there’s something there in Katon Crawford. And then Jamie Robinson as well, like they have a type. Jaime Robinson was a kind of slot corner kind of like Buddha Buddha Baker was in college. Uh, that just kind of runs around, loves to hit, he plays aggressive, maybe not the most stable coverage player. I wouldn’t be stunned if they had some injuries, if they had to go to Jammy Robinson maybe off of the practice squad and and he kind of plugs right in and allows them to keep doing what they’re they’re doing X’s and X’s and O’s wise on this side of the ball. So, I I really think it’s a fun secondary, man. It’s obviously unproven with the quarterback room, Will Johnson, Max Melton especially. It’s going to be hard for this team as we head into the season to rank too high. Um, but they do rank 21st for me for the secondary and they absolutely get the wild card here. Like if Will Johnson is good and healthy as a rookie, Garrett Williams proves himself out in year two, uh, well, year three, but effectively his year two, and Max Melton in his year two can just be stable, like this could be absolutely a top 10 secondary. There’s a ton of upside here. And again, they’re going to be able to play a different style this year that could be more beneficial for them. They won’t get left on an island as much with these crazy blitzes. Um, and they’ll be able to help each other out and and do some of these more, um, you know, uh, communicationbased coverages where they’re able to pass guys off and have more guys to help out, hopefully rushing with four more often and be able to win with more with four. You know, Dline and secondary help each other out so so much. So, it’s exciting to think of where this defense could go. Um, it is essentially all potential right now. We know their floor is is pretty damn solid, right? We saw a decent enough floor for this team last year, but it’s still a pass rush that um, while substantially improved from what it was last year, still ranks near the bottom of the league. 23rd to 25th was that pass rush ranking. and an unproven new look linebacker unit and a lot of youth with those quarterbacks. So, uh they do come in as my 21st ranking defense as we head into the season, 18th in run defense, 24th in pass defense. So, pretty balanced unit, but yeah, if they start to hit some green lights here with the pass rush in the secondary, there is a lot of excitement with this defense to be more of a top 10 defense. And as we know, if you’re a top 10 defense, we mentioned this offense has top 10 potential. Especially if just like Marvin Harrison can take that big step in year two, historically speaking, if you’re a top 10 offense, you’re a top 10 defense. You’re not just a playoff contender. You’re a team that can make some real noise in the playoffs. And I think that, you know, this team has a solid floor. We saw a solid floor last year and they were probably in many ways a year or two early where they created a little bit too much buzz for themsel early. They disappointed down the stretch and now teams are now people are selling the Cardinals. No, I think this is the year you should be buying the Cardinals. They have so much upside. Um if everything can kind of go right for this team, they can be a legitimate playoff contender. You know, Super Bowl is a big word to say for our 17th ranked team in this series, but I do think this team can really get into the mix in terms of like a team that could win like multiple playoff games at least. Um, and you know, we’re obviously getting into the the team summary aspect of the team here, but we do have to talk some special teams. Uh, the Cardinals are again very middle of the pack for special teams. Uh they ranked 15th based on my special teams formula. They were middle of the pack for both the PFF and DVOA team grades last year. Uh for the kicker uh grade per PFF they were 16th with Chad Ryland, 15th at Punter with Blake Gillicanin. They have a solid collection of returners with Greg Dorch and DJ Dallas. This is a very very solid stable um in many ways hopefully predictable special teams. you don’t have superstars with your specialist. Um, but it’s not I I don’t think it’s a unit that’s going to have your tragic mistakes either, which is in for most cases the biggest thing you can ask for. Um, so yeah, 15th special teams. Next, let’s take a look at recapping this team strengths, weaknesses, and pivotal factors. Um, so with the strengths, that is a category where you can argue that right now this team doesn’t have a whole lot of defining strengths. I do think just the overall run game is a strength. They again rank top 10 for our overall run game ranking and potential for that to even go up. Um, but I do think that is probably the one thing you point to and like that’s the one thing the Cardinals do really really well. Um everything everything related to the run game is solid to very good coaching running back skill players getting involved scheme getting the impact from the quarterback and the offensive line you probably wish was a little bit better for this to be an elite run game but it’s good enough to allow the other strengths in the run game to make their run game very very good. Um, but then the weakness is, that’s the other thing with this Cardinals team. Like I think their floor is actually really damn high because other than linebackers where I don’t think this is going to be a backbreaking linebacker unit, but they did rank 25th at linebacker. It’s not ideal. Other than that, point to the one real defining weakness on this Cardinals team. It’s hard to do that. And that does really help this team’s floor. And then it gets pretty simplistic to start to see some of the upside coming into play with this team when you discuss their wild cards and the pivotal factors for this Cardinals team that I think really just determine the upside of this unit. And and it’s all at critical positions. You have a wide receiver one in Marvin Harrison who you’re you’re hoping can take that year 2 leap. If he does, that’ll mean everything for this offense, I think. And then you look at the D line and the secondary. A lot of moving pieces, a lot of stuff coming together, but really a lot of upside with those units. I think the Dline can be top half of the league with all these additions and some of the youth. Um maybe not a superstar Dline, but I do think they can be, you know, the 13th, 14th best defensive line in the league. And then the secondary can absolutely be a top 10 secondary as early as this season, especially if Will Johnson is as good as you hope he could be in year one. So, it’s a pretty clear picture for this Cardinals team. It’s a big third season where they are hoping a lot of these young pieces can really come together in the third season of this regime. And I will I will reiterate that point. I think this team was in many ways um a year early last year and this could be the that buzzword is the post hype sleeper. I think that could be the Arizona Cardinals this year, you guys. But let’s take a look at this team schedule and think if that’s possible. And this schedule could potentially be setting up for the Cardinals to face their Demons because we talked earlier in the episode about how they need to finish stronger. they have finished, you know, they have started hot and then fallen off in in, you know, that’s been their thing really in the Kyler Murray era. So, it’s it’s a Kyler Murray thing and it’s an Arizona Cardinals thing, I think. Um, but they they are positioned well to start hot. They have at New Orleans week one, Carolina at home week two, they play Tennessee at home week five, they get Seattle at home week four. I think they’ll be favorites to heavy favorites in all four of those games. Then they have winnable games. You know, I think at at Indianapolis, I think Green Bay at home is winnable for them. At Dallas, Kyler Murray has never lost at AT&T Stadium. Um, at Seattle, who I think Arizona is a better team than, and I’m sorry, Seahawks fans. So does Las Vegas. You can see there the Cardinals are third in division odds ahead of Seattle. So really, the first 10 weeks, every game is quote unquote winnable. you’re going to be underdogs in some of those games for sure. But can this team start, you know, six and three with that schedule? I think with how they did it last year, I think that’s very much possible and in play for them. But you go down the stretch, yes, you do get a home game against Jacksonville in there, week 12, um, in a home game week 16 against Atlanta. They’re going to have to take care of business in those games, but you have to play the Rams twice within your division there. You have to go to Houston. You have the ners at home week 11. Um you have at Tampa Bay is going to be a really hard game at Cincinnati week 17. Um they’ve got some some really tough games down the stretch in my opinion and four out of their last six games are going to be on the road. Um so it’s a it’s a fun narrative-based schedule for them. At the end of the day it is going to come down to them taking care of business, them hitting these green lights with these young players. Kyler Murray playing well, playing more consistently. more have taken that next step up. Like everything we talked about obviously um I think whether or not the Cardinals can finish above their 8 and a half Vegas overunder is going to be in the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. I will say this, I don’t hate taking that over. I do like this team, but the 50 to1 Super Bowl odds, it’s interesting. I do think they have that best case scenario upside in the NFC especially where they don’t have to get through a run of elite quarterbacks. We saw this team in the mix in the NFC West last year and I think they can absolutely get in that mix again this year. It’s a it’s a big ask, right? The Rams and and the Niners are going to be back hopefully healthy. Um but we’ve seen how that’s gone in previous years for the Niners. Um, but if this team can get a home game, get hot at the right time, $5 on the Cardinals to be this year’s Cinderella team and go on a run to win $250. Yeah, I might have to make that bet myself. Uh, just just for the fun of it. I think this will be a very fun team to watch. Um, but that is going to conclude my analysis on the Arizona Cardinals. You guys will have to let me know about this ranking, about the whole breakdown. Do you think I’m too optimistic about this team or did I maybe sell you on this team being a little bit more interesting than you previously thought? I know a lot of people thought uh the Cardinals should have been revealed a few episodes ago. So, I’m very curious to hear what you guys think. Thank you so much for watching. Um we will be back within the next few days with our number 16 team in this deep dive series. Um but please do hit that like button on the way out and until that next deep dive, cheers. We’ll see you later.
A comprehensive preview of the 2025 Arizona Cardinals! In this video, we’ll review Offseason Changes, the Coaching Staff, what the Offensive & Defensive Schemes will look like, how each position group stacks up against the rest of the League, and finally take a look at their schedule and win total expectations!
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My QB Tiers
Tier 1 – Elite
QBs who give you a shot at a Super Bowl every year almost regardless of roster talent.
Tier 2 – Great
QBs who elevate their team who you would expect to win a Super Bowl in a 10-year window at their current level of play.
Tier 3 – Good
QBs who can get the most out of a great team and give you a shot at a Super Bowl as long kolas the team stays great around him.
Tier 4 – Fine (Split into Developing & Capped)
Clearly a starting caliber QB but are either in their growth stages as a prospect or have reached a ceiling that suggests you will have a very hard time winning a championship with this player.
Tier 5 – Fringe Starter (Split into Developing & Capped)
A QB flirting with the line of being one of the Top 32 QBs in the league. Is either a capped, bridge Quarterback for a team, or a talented, young QB with upside and at least a 1 year runway to show development on his current team.
Tier 6 – Backup (Split into Developing & Capped)
Either a veteran backup who has reached his ceiling, or an intriguing young backup who could surprise someday if given an opportunity.
QB Run Multiplier is for the Designed Run Game Only! Scheme & usage is heavily considered. The QBs
Scrambling ability is a part of my Passing grade and evaluation.
Team Formulas
Team Overall)
64% Offense | 35% Defense | 1% Special Teams
Team Offense)
64% Passing Game | 36% Run Game
Passing Game)
40% QB Passing | 30% Weapons | 21% Pass Blocking | 8% Pass Game Coaching | 1% Coach & Culture
Run Game)
45% Run Blocking | 32% Runningback | 20% Run Game Coaching | 3% Coach & Culture | QB Run applied as a Multiplier
Team Defense)
65% Pass Defense
35% Run Defense
Pass Defense
45% Pass Rush | 30% DB Coverage | 6% LB Coverage | 17% Pass Defense Coaching | 2% Coach & Culture
Run Defense
41% DL Run Defense | 30% LB Run Defense | 25% Run Defense Coaching | 4% Coach & Culture | DB Run Support applied as Multiplier
Chapters
Intro 0:00
Rankings Update (Christian Wilkins Released, And Other News)
Coach & Scheme 3:19
Quarterback 18:21
Weapons 27:54
Backfield 48:59
O-Line 57:44
Offensive Summary 1:11:49
Defensive Line 1:12:22
Linebackers 1:37:55
Secondary 1:44:52
Defensive Summary 2:02:28
Team Summary & Special Teams 2:03:20
Schedule & Win Total Projections 2:08:07
41 comments
I have a suggestion. You should start color coding the up and down arrows. You could have a blue up arrow for someone unproven that you are pretty sure will out perform the rating and a red arrow for someone with the tools to be better but you don’t think will.
MOM! MOM! GET THE CAMERA! GET THE CAMERA! THE NEW DEEP DIVE IS OUT!
Wherever you put the 49ers will be too high… they will be awful this year even with that schedule
TFG QB rankings (overall)
9. Dak Prescott (83)
14. Trevor Lawrence (81)
15. Kyler Murray (80)
17. Tua Tagovailoa (80) 🏥
18. Geno Smith (79)
20. Sam Darnold (76) 🃏 ⬆️ ⬇️
21. Aaron Rodgers (76) ⏰
22. Russell Wilson (75)
23. Bryce Young (74) ⬆️ 🃏
24. Drake Maye (74) ⬆️ 🃏
26. Michael Penix (74) ⬆️ 🃏
27. Cam Ward (71) ⬆️ 🃏
28. Justin Fields (70)
30. Daniel Jones (70)/Anthony Richardson (69) 🃏 🏥
31. Joe Flacco (69)/Kenny Pickett (68)/Dillon Gabriel (66)/Sheuder Sanders (68) ⬆️
32. Tyler Shough (68) ⬆️/Spencer Rattler (64)
Key
⬆️= Up Arrow
🃏= Pivotal Factors/Wildcards
⬆️ ⬇️= Up and Down Arrow
🏥= Injury Prone
⏰= Getting older in age/Against Time
I'm at the point where I wish the Bears were worse so that I can see the deep dive sooner 😅
Got a flight from London to Houston tomorrow ! Will download this for the flight !
As a Wayzata high school alum, hearing that Nick Rallis went to Edina is a bit scary 😨
Cards over the cowboys is slightly insane to me
Did I miss Zaven collins in the breakdown on the defense or was i bugging?
In what way shape or form is this team better then the Colts and Seahawks? Genuinely
Thank you so much for the variety of content. Your videos always skillfully combine entertainment and education.🛥💐💞
Every time I visit your channel, I am left with positive emotions and new ideas. Thank you for your creative energy!Your videos are a true work of art! Such attention to detail and passion for what you do makes your videos unique.🔷🍍🏸
I FUCKING KNEW IT WAS THE CARDINALS!!! I've been loving the new format by the way, I had a suggestion in the last episode that may have been washed away in the comments so I want to reiterate. I think splitting up the coaching staff and scheme talk could improve the flow a bit. Especially because, yes these are for sickos like myself but we all want to know about the players just as much as the coaches. I think you give them adequate time but it can feel sluggish to start somtimes. Still such a great series even if you don't like the idea of that change.
Looks at shirt
Dude you lost the challenge.
I have been watching you for a long time and your content is still exciting with its variety. Thank you for your hard work!🎩🦜👑
Bears survive again. Letsssss go. Ik ur a big Murray fan but when are we gonna say what’s on some ppls minds? Whats he really done? He hasn’t stepped up in the those big moments we all want to see. He’s a nice player but just hasn’t put it all together yet imo. Hope he shows out this year as the roster is very much better and Gannon has his hands all over this defense. Btw 38 designed runs is criminal
Keep up the good work! Your videos are a real treat for all fans of your work.⛷🚖⛺️
Bears top half!
I like them for 10-7 and the 6th or 7th seed in the playoffs. If the defense is at least average they should make it.
There’s a decent chance that the cardinals eek out the 7th seed in a crowded NFC—they feel like a 9-8, 10-7 type of team
What would you say was kylers passing overall grade from just the first half, and just the last half? Thanks again marcus, yet again saving my weekend
Bears hype back at it again
Everybody in the nfc west is running similar offenses now. This is truly a copycat league. Everyone doesn’t have Sean mcvay calling there offense though
Qb should be upgraded for losing Ridder
I think the biggest change for the Cardinals since Kingsbury was fired is that they now have fire in their guts
I’m gonna go crazy and say Ravens are #1….
….which means they’ll probably be at #11😂
Kyler Murray starts off hot every year and fizzles out mid way through the season
Ima say commanders up next
Yearly Kyler glaze incoming
Really surprised u have Trey McBride at an 88. I feel like he’s one of the elite tight ends that should be at least a 90-91
definition of insanity- doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. cant wait for seattle to outperform the ranking youve set for them once again. it partially stems from overlooking seattle's greatest pieces- the cardinals have a good team, for sure. but you expect me to believe leonard williams is only and 82, only 4 overall slots higher than dalvin tomlinson? i guess only time will tell, as it always does
Saying Kyler will be better than Mahomes this year is a crazy take but we'll see!
The real challenge should be to go through a team without throwing any shade at Brandon Staley 😂
Yup! Cards make sense here. Your cold openings get better and better! I don’t remember an event I look forward to more than a new TFG video – other than the arrival of my mail order bride 10 years ago (no judging!). Sitting on a couch debating watching the Back Together Weekend on NFL channel OR diving into this video. Decisions decisions. Either Bears or Bengals next. I’m leaning Bengals……
Being a poor man’s Marquez Valdes-Scantling is a crazy slight 😂
Your take on the ghost of prime Patrick Peterson possessing the Cardinals DBs for the Cardinals to rank this high is surprising but I see the vision
I’m guessing that the bears are next after that, it’s the Wild West of the deep dive series.
Marvin Harrison jr is 6’ 3”
I kinda think it would be smoother to go QB -> backfield -> weapons. The backfield has the QB rushing element which flows better from the QB conversation. Then the first time you would discuss RBs and see their rating is their primary rushing role, rather than their receiving grade in the weapons conversation.
Never have I clicked on a video faster.
I miss Josh Sweat already 😭