Feb. 15, 2026, 12:44 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> are coming off their losingest season in team history, going 3-14 in 2025. It led to the firing of head coach Jonathan Gannon and potentially the departure of quarterbacks Kyler Murray and Jacoby Brissett.<\/p>\n They hired Mike LaFleur to be their new head coach. When they began their search leading to LaFleur, owner Michael Bidwill was clear that he wanted a quick turnaround.<\/p>\n However, is that realistic?<\/p>\n Not based on what is the outside view of the team.<\/p>\n ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler broke down every non-playoff team’s situation and tiered the type of overhaul<\/a> they need to make the postseason.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The Cardinals fall all the way down into the lowest tier of “full-blown overhaul.”<\/p>\n The hope for a quick turnaround: The law of averages says Arizona will have better luck on the injury front. The team was playing third- and fourth-stringers at several spots last season. Better health will allow Arizona to run the ball more efficiently. The defense is not devoid of talent.<\/p>\n Why it might take longer than hoped: Arizona could be looking at a complete reset at quarterback, with Kyler Murray owed $36.8 million in guarantees in 2026 and possibly on his way out. The team lacks true blue-chip players, save for 26-year-old tight end Trey McBride and 30-year-old safety Budda Baker. The Cardinals simply weren’t competitive for much of last season and must make hard decisions as a result.<\/p>\n This is an awful spot to be in. It was just three years ago when Gannon was hired and began a complete overhaul. Three years later, they are in the same place again?<\/p>\n They have some cap space, but they don’t have a ton. They don’t have a good option at quarterback right now. They have a rookie head coach. They have a defense that allowed over 30 points in six of their final nine games.<\/p>\n They went 3-14 in a division where everyone else made the playoffs and won more than 10 games.<\/p>\n They have needs all over the roster.<\/p>\n With the right moves, a best-case scenario would get them to where they were in 2024 before things fell apart, but even that would be quite optimistic.<\/p>\n We will see in the weeks to come how they remake the roster.<\/p>\n Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 15, 2026, 12:44 p.m. MT The Arizona Cardinals are coming off their losingest season in team history,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,97154,95892,96064,96065,95896,95888,95895,95897,95883,96061,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-755493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-cardinals","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","16":"tag-sstsncardinals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","19":"tag-tagbudda-baker","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagjacoby-brissett","22":"tag-tagkyler-murray","23":"tag-tagnational-sports","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagoverall-negative","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtrey-mcbride","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116079081777882281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755493","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=755493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}