Turf Show Times
Can Kyler Murray get the Cardinals to the playoffs?
While most sportsbooks have pegged either the Los Angeles Rams or San Francisco 49ers as the favorites to take the NFC West in 2025, it would be unwise to discount a maturing Arizona Cardinals team.
Arizona went 8-9 in their second year under head coach Jonathan Gannon, improving from their 2023 mark of 4-13. They scored the most points among all NFC West teams with 400, ranking behind only the Detroit Lions (564), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (502), Washington Commanders (485), Philadelphia Eagles (463), Green Bay Packers (460), and Minnesota Vikings (432) in the NFC. For those keeping score (pun intended), all the teams ahead of the Cardinals made the playoffs in 2024.
Arizona also held a 3-5 record in one-score games. As they continue to round out their young roster, it wouldn’t take much for them to flip games to the win column and make the division race interesting this year.
I’d probably call 2024 mostly a success for the Cardinals. They continued making progress after Gannon inherited an aging and untalented roster from former general manager Steve Keim.
The Arizona offense is downright dangerous. They can grind you out on the ground. Murray is inconsistent, but he’s shown high-end flashes as a potentially elite playmaker. The pass catching corps is talented. If it all comes together, we could see more consistent production from Murray.
Nolan was one of my favorite prospects towards the back of the first round. He’ll join the NFC West interior pass rush community filled with the likes of Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, and Byron Murphy.
Will Johnson is somewhat of a gamble in the second round. He was available when the Rams instead picked TE Terrance Ferguson and reportedly fell out of the first round because of questions surrounding the long-term health...
