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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Best NFC 2025 NFL Draft picks<\/p>\n
USA TODAY’s Tyler Dragon breaks down which teams in the NFC drafted the best this year.<\/p>\n
Sports Seriously<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> saw key improvements on both sides of the ball in Year 2 under head coach Jonathan Gannon in 2024. They were in the mix for the NFC West division crown but went 2-5 to close the season to end up 8-9 on the season.<\/p>\n Arizona’s defense took a big leap in 2024, going from second-to-last in the league in points allowed to 15th and getting to near-league average in run defense.<\/p>\n The offense improved as well thanks to quarterback Kyler Murray<\/a> being healthy for a full season for the first time since 2020. Tight end Trey McBride<\/a>\u00a0 enjoyed a breakout season with a career-high 1,146 yards and his first Pro Bowl honor.<\/p>\n Arizona rewarded McBride with a record-setting extension this offseason<\/a> as the team retained most of its top talent from 2024 and spent in free agency to add key pieces. The Cardinals<\/a> brought back former longtime starter Calais Campbell<\/a> and Dalvin Tomlinson<\/a> to bolster the defensive line and landed top edge rusher Josh Sweat<\/a>.<\/p>\n The team continued its investment on defense in the draft. Arizona spent six of its seven draft picks on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive linemen Walter Nolen<\/a> and Jordan Burch<\/a>, cornerbacks Will Johnson<\/a> and Denzel Burke<\/a> and linebacker Cody Simon<\/a> bolster the defense at every level.<\/p>\n The offense will rely on another year of development under coordinator Drew Petzing. Wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.<\/a> was second to McBride among the pass-catchers as a rookie in 2024 and could take a leap in Year 2.<\/p>\n It’s been a decade since the Cardinals won the NFC West and they’ve made the playoffs just once in that span (2021). Will they make a push in a competitive division in 2025? USA TODAY Sports predicts the Cardinals’ record as the 2025 NFL schedule release nears.<\/p>\n Buy Cardinals tickets for the 2025 season<\/a><\/p>\n Cardinals record prediction 2025<\/p>\n Record prediction: 9-8<\/p>\n The NFC West is very likely going to be competitive again this season. The 49ers should be healthier, the Seahawks have a new offense and the Rams brought in Davante Adams as the young defense should improve again.<\/p>\n Arizona went 3-3 in divisional games last year and we think they’ll do that once again. Beyond that, their schedule includes the AFC South and NFC South. Only division winners Tampa Bay and Houston reached 10 wins from those divisions in 2024.<\/p>\n Due to finishing third in the division in 2024, they’ll also face the Cowboys<\/a>, Bengals and Packers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Road games against the Texans’ defense and Bengals’ offense could be tough. A home tilt against the Packers likely won’t be easy, either.<\/p>\n But that is balanced out by games against teams with new regimes including New Orleans and Jacksonville. We think they’ll likely split the non-division games on their schedule and contend for a playoff spot again but ultimately fall short in Year 3 with Gannon at the helm.<\/p>\n Cardinals 2025 opponents<\/p>\n Here’s the full list of Cardinals opponents for 2025:<\/p>\n HomeRoad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best NFC 2025 NFL Draft picks USA TODAY’s Tyler Dragon breaks down which teams in the NFC drafted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[3979,821,247,265,375,390,2604,210,4750,4755,1125,1327,868,867,877,321,230,229,257,4748,4753,3978,5430,864,876,7,866,27,345,5921,1070,4826,4827,7992,7994,7993,677,679,2488,248,267,88,6,907,869,245,537,428,530,865,9,266,678,4749,2340,6042],"class_list":{"0":"post-43950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-adams","9":"tag-affiliate","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-arizona","13":"tag-arizona-cardinals","14":"tag-arizonacardinals","15":"tag-bay","16":"tag-calais","17":"tag-calais-campbell","18":"tag-campbell","19":"tag-cardinals","20":"tag-commerce","21":"tag-contains","22":"tag-contains-commerce-or-affiliate-content","23":"tag-content","24":"tag-cowboys","25":"tag-dallas","26":"tag-dallas-cowboys","27":"tag-dalvin","28":"tag-dalvin-tomlinson","29":"tag-davante","30":"tag-davante-adams","31":"tag-exclude","32":"tag-exclude-smart-fronts","33":"tag-football","34":"tag-fronts","35":"tag-green","36":"tag-green-bay-packers","37":"tag-harrison","38":"tag-jr","39":"tag-kyler","40":"tag-kyler-murray","41":"tag-marvin","42":"tag-marvin-harrison","43":"tag-mcbride","44":"tag-modular","45":"tag-modular-story","46":"tag-murray","47":"tag-national","48":"tag-national-sports","49":"tag-news","50":"tag-nfl","51":"tag-now","52":"tag-or","53":"tag-overall","54":"tag-overall-positive","55":"tag-packers","56":"tag-positive","57":"tag-smart","58":"tag-sports","59":"tag-sports-news","60":"tag-story","61":"tag-tomlinson","62":"tag-trey","63":"tag-trey-mcbride"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43950","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=43950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}