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After a promising start to the 2025 NFL season, securing a pair of wins over the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers, the wheels fell off in a major way for the Arizona Cardinals, with the team losing all but one of their final 15 games to finish out the season 3-14.
Suddenly, Kyler Murray’s future in the desert looked murky, every player on the roster’s future was under evaluation, and the head coaching seat was vacated, with Jonathan Gannon fired after just three seasons in Arizona.
With a rebuild now on the horizon, the Cardinals have to identify the right head coach and potentially the right quarterback to shepherd the organization into the future. Fortunately, if they can get those two boxes infatically checked, Ian Rapoport believes the Cardinals could bounce back in a hurry, following in the footsteps of similar rebuilds to the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.
“There’s a lot to like about this Arizona Cardinals roster. To see Monty Ossenfort sitting there, you know, involved with the decision, makes sense. I mean, they have really bolstered the town here. They were good enough to win eight games last year. They do have a quarterback question, which I’ll get to in a second, but at least a new coach would come in and have the talent base to turn it around quickly,” Rapoport explained.
“Now, there’s a couple other examples of teams that have faced difficult quarterback situations, have been able to move and maneuver very quickly, and get a good quarterback they like that gets taken to the playoffs. The Denver Broncos have done it. The Seattle Seahawks have done it. The Seahawks obviously moved on from Gino Smith, signed Sam Darnold, and they’re in the playoffs to one of the NFL’s best teams. The Broncos took a huge cap hit, moved on from Russell Wilson, draft Bo Nix probably earlier than most people had anticipated. And there they are.
“So if you are the Arizona Cardinals, one, it can be done. You can move on from Kyle Murray, as we expect them to do. And you could find a young, cheap quarterback who is good. And then you could find a head coach to come in and turn this around quickly, had the Arizona Cardinals shown a little more life, won a little more games at the end of the season. We might not be talking about this, but reality is reality, and it is a restart in Arizona.”
Now granted, to say the Cardinals’ turnaround is as simple as finding a new head coach and retread starting quarterback is easier said than done, as every season teams cycle through coaches and quarterbacks in the pursuit of that perfect pairing. Fortunately, with plenty of talent on their roster already, Arizona should be attractive for prospective hires, which, in turn, could put them in position to rebound along the lines of Rapoport’s vision.
From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: The #AZCardinals can look around...
