NFL Offseason 2019: Ranking the 5 most improved NFC teams

2. Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals finished 2018 with the worst record in the entire NFL. The Cardinals had no real pass rush last year nor any solid players in pass coverage besides the now suspended Patrick Peterson. But this past off-season was quite the good one for the Cardinals and Cardinals fans.

Starting with free agency where the Cardinals did a good job, but not a great job. The Cardinals made some solid pickups in the form an older Terrell Suggs and a decent J.R Sweezy. The best pickup in free agency though for the Cardinals was Jordan Hicks. Hicks wasn’t the flashiest pickup in the world but Hicks had a good year last year with the Eagles and should be a good coverage linebacker for the Cardinals this coming year.

The best part of the off-season this year for the Cardinals was the draft. The Cardinals made a great pick by taking Kyler Murray with their first pick and then proceeded to surround him with weapons like Hakeem Butler and Andy Isabella.  The Cardinals also addressed their defense in the draft as well. The Cardinals selected Zach Allen in the 3rd and took Deointe Thompson in the 5th, but their best defensive selection easily had to be Byron Murphy with the 1st pick in the 2nd round. Byron Murphy easily had the best zone coverage skills in the entire draft of anybody. The best part of the Byron Murphy selection was the fit; Before Patrick Peterson got suspended, lining up Byron Murphy on the other side of Peterson would have been the perfect fit for Murphy.

I’m not saying the Cardinals will be a playoff team this year at all. But with how they attacked free agency and more importantly how they attacked the draft, they made a great foundation and a great path for the playoffs in the future.