The Arizona Cardinals finished the 2023 season with a 4-13 record and missed the playoffs for the 7th time in 8 seasons. The Cardinals knew they were going to be in for a long year as Kyler Murray unfortunately tore his ACL in December of the 2022 season – and wouldn’t play his first game until week 10 of the 2023 season against the Falcons – in a game the Cardinals won to improve to 2-8. Despite Arizona finishing the 2023 season with a 4-13 record – they finished the year with a 3-5 record in their final 8 games – and had 8 selections in the top 104 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft. I know the title of today’s video of the Arizona Cardinals are going to be a problem – is bold – and I know some people – and hell – probably a lot of people – will scoff at the title of a team that has a combined 8 wins over the last two seasons. And I get it. But the Arizona Cardinals are doing everything right from a rebuilding standpoint – and in today’s video we are going to breakdown what we can realistically expect from the 2024 Arizona Cardinals. Are they going to win a playoff game? I don’t think so and to be completely honest – I would be very surprised if they make the playoffs – but they are going to be in every game and they are going to lay the foundation for their future with Kyler Murray and Jonathan Gannon this year. And for what they are – I am very excited to watch the Arizona Cardinals play this year. And as a preface – they play the Bills, Rams, and Lions in the first 3 weeks of the season – and I think there is a strong possibility they start out 0-3 – but I think those games will be a lot closer than you may think. And we’re going to break everything down in today’s video. Now let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video by breaking down who the Cardinals lost in free agency and who they acquired in free agency. They really didn’t lose too many players this year and the one big – or notable name they lost – was wide receiver Marquise Brown signing a one year $7 million dollar deal with the Chiefs. And just being honest – I thought the Cardinals would try and retain Marquise in free agency – especially for the cost – so I was a little surprised whenever he left to go play for the Chiefs. Now – one of the reasons I thought Marquise would stay in Arizona – was – they traded a first round pick for Hollywood during the 2022 draft and also received a 3rd round pick in return. Now I know that was from the Cardinals old regime under GM Steve Keim – but given they gave up what they gave up for Hollywood – and the fact he only played two seasons for them – well – I thought for sure we would see him in a Cardinals uniform for at least one more year.
But aside from Marquise Brown – the Cardinals lost Leki Fotu – a defensive tackle who signed with the Jets, and veteran corner Antonio Hamilton who signed with the Falcons. Fotu was a 4th round pick for the Cardinals back in 2020 and he was an okay player for Arizona – but certainly not an irreplaceable player by any means. Antonio Hamilton is a player who who played 41 games for the Cardinals over the last 3 years and all things considered – he was a solid player for the Cardinals – but again – they’re not doomed by the loss of Hamilton. In free agency they brought in Justin Jones from the Bears and signed him to a 3 year deal worth a little over $31 million dollars. I was a little surprised they gave him over $26 million in guarantees from this signing – especially for who he is as a player – but he is coming off of a decent year with the Bears – and the big thing here for the Cardinals that needs to be remembered with a signing like Justin Jones – is – he was an upgrade from what they previously had. And that’s the biggest thing that needs to be remembered with the 2024 Arizona Cardinals defense. They finished near the bottom of the NFL in a lot of categories last year and there was a reason for that – it was necessarily because Jonathan Gannon is a terrible defensive coach – or that his defensive philosophies simply can’t work or that he’s not cut out to be a good head coach – it’s the simple fact that the Cardinals defense – from a talent standpoint – is not close to where other teams are offensively. I mean think about it – do you think Starling Thomas, a rookie Kei’Trel Clark, and a 30 year old Antonio Hamilton are going to be able to line up for 70 snaps and stop Brandon Aiyuk from dicing them up when they played the 49ers? Or are they going to be able to stop George Kittle every single play? No. And that – along with the fact that Kyler Murray missed nearly half of the year were the main reasons as to why the 2023 Cardinals were so bad at times. The Browns game specifically was a game where they started Clayton Tune on the road and that went about as well as expected. Tune finished the day 11/20 for 58 yards and threw 2 interceptions. When you factor in he was sacked 7 times for a total of 41 yards lost on those sacks – the Cardinals finished the day with 17 yards passing, and just 41 yards rushing for a grand total of 58 yards of offense. And after hearing all of this the question you may be asking to yourself is – well why are you bought in with the 2024 Cardinals despite all of this? And there’s a few reasons for that.
Their defense should be improved from last year – as it’s hard to get worse from finishing 31st in points allowed per game, 32nd in rushing yards allowed, 29th in average yards per carry allowed, and 30th in passing touchdowns allowed. Opposing quarterbacks actually had a 32 to 11 touchdown to interception ratio against the Cardinals over the course of the 2023 season. But by bringing in guys like Justin Jones, Sean Bunting, Bilal Nichols, and Mack Wilson – they are improving as a roster which is huge. And no only that – but they also invested 3 top 90 picks in their defense in the 2024 draft – including two picks in the top 43 in Darius Robinson and Max Melton – both of which we will discuss during the rookie impact part of the video. Now the unfortunate part of football is – season ending injuries can happen at any time. That’s the reality of the game. And second year pass rusher BJ Ojulari was a prospect I loved coming out of LSU and he was without a doubt – going to be my breakout player for this team entering 2024. Ojulari had 40 tackles as a rookie, 6 quarterback hits, 5 TFL’s, and 4 sacks – and that was all accomplished as a 21 year old rookie. He tore his ACL and is unfortunately done for the season. He will be just 23 years old entering 2025 – but losing him in the pre season was a big blow to this pass rush. Their leading sack getter from 2023 was veteran Dennis Gardeck – who is still on the team – and a player who had over 40 pressures last year – and this was a team that struggled to routinely get after the quarterback. And this is something I expect to continue in 2024 and to go back to the title of the Arizona Cardinals are going to be a problem – this certainly applies more to the Cardinals offense – and what they’re going to do week in and week out than it does their defense. And the biggest thing with the Cardinals defense entering this year is – as long as they are not bottom 2 or 3 in the NFL – and as long as they give the offense a chance – this team is going to be competing in every game. This team allowed 100 yards or more rushing in 14 of 17 games last year and in the only 3 games they didn’t allowed 100 yards or more as a defense – the opposing offense had rushing totals of 91, 92, and 93 yards. That’s the goal for the 2024 Cardinals defense as simple as it sounds. Just don’t be absolutely terrible and do not be a hinderance to what the offense is trying to accomplish. The Cardinals allowed 20 points or less in a game just twice in all of 2023 – and not surprisingly – Arizona won both games. With the personnel the Cardinals have – it would be either naive or foolish to think they’re going to be a top 3 unit this year and a unit that keeps opposing offenses up at night wondering how they’re going to be able to put up points against them on Sunday. But if they can improve from last year – which they should based on their offseason acquisitions and by playing complimentary football – which is not something they did as much as they would have liked last year – then they’re going to be better by default. And what also has to be remembered is – this team went 1-8 without Kyler Murray and 3-5 with him. They’re not as hopeless as some people may believe. They’re not going to be the same old Cardinals and they’re certainly not going to be a team that gets rolled over every week.
I don’t expect Dennis Gardeck to be a 50 pressure guy this year and I don’t expect Zaven Collins to be a 13 or 14 sack player this year. Zaven was always frustrating to me because they used him as a inside linebacker during the 2022 season, and they used him more as a pass rusher last year and whenever you spend a top 16 pick on a player – I think you should have a plan before the selection is made. And I know the Cardinals haven’t experienced a lot of winning for a few years now – but they are doing the right things and this was never going to be an overnight rebuild. I think 2023 was the true bottoming out for the Cardinals – and that 2024 will be a stepping stone for what we can expect in 2025 and beyond.
