{"id":232393,"date":"2025-07-24T13:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/232393\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T13:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:17:11","slug":"how-the-arizona-cardinals-view-themselves-amid-raised-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/232393\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Arizona Cardinals view themselves amid raised expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

To find the last time that the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> carried real expectations \u2014 the kind that render a season without playoffs a failure \u2014 you have to rewind three years, to the start of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

That was back before Kyler Murray tore his ACL, before the Kliff Kingsbury era imploded, before a new regime was hired. It was before Josh Dobbs and Clayton Tune helped navigate a lost 2023; before the fleeting hope of last November gave way to the reality of December elimination. Three years on the calendar, but a lifetime in the NFL.<\/p>\n

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That spot, finally, is where the Jonathan Gannon-Monti Ossenfort era has arrived. When the Cardinals began training camp on July 23, they did so surrounded by a tangible belief that this season could be \u2014 and perhaps should be \u2014 different.<\/p>\n

More than anything, those expectations are external. You\u2019ll hear more talk of the playoffs on sports-talk radio and social media websites than inside the Cardinals locker room. When he held his first news conference of training camp, Gannon spoke in his usual platitudes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t man,\u201d Gannon said. \u201cProcess, man. Process today. I’m worried about today.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even Gannon acknowledged that this year\u2019s team has an understanding of what it takes to win in the NFL. That\u2019s what happens when a group has been together for three years and when its key players are no longer rookies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don’t think they didn’t feel that last year or the year before, but it’s a heightened sense of awareness,\u201d Gannon said. \u201cWe’re in Year 3 now and we got what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to understand what that means.<\/p>\n

Year 1 was a wash, with Murray sidelined until November by his knee injury. Year 2 was still a work in progress, with a defense that lacked high-end talent, especially up front.<\/p>\n

Year 3 is different. The Cardinals have the league\u2019s 11th-best offense, returning its entire starting lineup. Their overachieving but undermanned defense was infused with three marquee free agents and five draft picks in the first five rounds.<\/p>\n

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In the locker room, the returning players see that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust win,\u201d Marvin Harrison Jr. said. \u201cThat’s what it comes down to. This is the time. The time is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like his head coach, Harrison stopped short of labeling his goals. This wasn\u2019t Murray\u2019s news conference from a month ago, when the quarterback said that his prime looks like \u201crings.\u201d But there was also no denying that the standard had changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what our goals are,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cWe didn’t accomplish them last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier to do that because of the culture Ossenfort and Gannon have fostered.<\/p>\n

Each year in the NFL, a handful of teams spend their summers mired in controversy. The Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> have contract disputes with their first-round pick Shemar Stewart and star edge rusher Trey Hendrickson. Receiver Terry McLaurin hasn\u2019t shown up to Washington Commanders<\/a> training camp as he holds out for a contract. Dallas Cowboys<\/a> star Micah Parsons is publicly feuding with owner Jerry Jones.<\/p>\n

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The Cardinals, throughout their history, have been no strangers to that type of drama. During Gannon\u2019s tenure, they\u2019ve avoided it. Just this spring, they extended tight end Trey McBride before his impending free agency could turn into a controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonti has done a really good job and (owner Michael Bidwill) has done a really good job to eliminate a lot of those for us,\u201d Gannon said. \u201cAnd when you can eliminate a lot of those, now you can concentrate on football and getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the goal for training camp. The goal for the season, whether the Cardinals will admit it or not, is different. It\u2019s to bring the playoffs back to Arizona.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals begin training camp with raised expecations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To find the last time that the Arizona Cardinals carried real expectations \u2014 the kind that render a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,256,4659,257,11190,7,47622,7202,4827,7994,491,6,1496,7186,6957,8896,1503,6042,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-232393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","13":"tag-clayton-tune","14":"tag-dallas-cowboys","15":"tag-expectations","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-jonathan-gannon-monti-ossenfort","18":"tag-josh-dobbs","19":"tag-kyler-murray","20":"tag-marvin-harrison","21":"tag-micah-parsons","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-shemar-stewart","24":"tag-terry-mclaurin","25":"tag-the-cardinals","26":"tag-training-camp","27":"tag-trey-hendrickson","28":"tag-trey-mcbride","29":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114908407448793862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}