Can the Arizona Cardinals rise to the top of the NFC West this season?
Can you say habit forming? Focusing on recently, it happened twice in 2017 and one of those teams won a Super Bowl. It also happened two more times in 2018. And while no NFL team rebounded from a last-place finish the prior season to a division title in 2019, it is worth pointing out that the San Francisco 49ers were a 4-12 team a year before finishing 13-3, winning the NFC West and reaching Super Bowl LIV in South Florida.
Big-time turnarounds have become somewhat regular in the National Football League. When it came to the aforementioned 2017 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles both won division crowns a year after finishing in the basement of the AFC South and NFC East, respectively. And Doug Pederson’s squad captured the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy after outlasting the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
The following year, Matt Nagy’s Chicago Bears and Bill O’Brien’s Houston Texans went from the outhouse to the penthouse in the NFC North and AFC South, respectively.
So here is the first installment of another eight-part divisional series, this time taking a look at how each team that finished last in the respective division in 2019 could capture the top spot this year. The focus here is on the Arizona Cardinals, who won two more games than they did in 2019 when they finished a league-worst 3-13.
So can they bounce back this season and capture a very rugged NFC West? Here’s their path to winning the division.
3. Find a way to be competitive against the Los Angeles Rams.
It’s a division that has produced five of the last eight conference champions. The NFC West gave the league the San Francisco 49ers in 2012 as well as this past season, the Seattle Seahawks in back-to-back years in 2013 and 2014 and the Los Angeles Rams in 2018.
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And the Arizona Cardinals did reach the NFC title game in 2015 only to be humbled by the Carolina Panthers. Hence, this has been a pretty rugged division in recent years
However, the club that has caused the most angst for the team from the desert as of late has been Sean McVay’s potent squad. Prior to this past season, the Cards had knocked off the 49ers eight consecutive times and the team has mostly split with the Seahawks as of late. Arizona has had more than its share of success in Seattle, going 5-2 on the road vs. Pete Carroll’s team dating back to 2013.
But the Rams have been a different story. Six consecutive losses in the series have been by a combined score of 195-56. And the Cardinals have allowed at least 31 points in each of those contests.
Since 2017, the team is a combined 6-12 vs. their NFC West rivals. Half of those dozen losses have come to the Rams. It’s a dragon that Kliff Kingsbury’s improving team needs to slay at least once in 2020.
2. Continue to feed Kenyan Drake on a consistent basis.
In 2018, the Arizona Cardinals were the bottom-ranked offense in the NFL and that included finishing 32nd in the league in both rushing and passing yards.
The club finish with a paltry 83.9 per game on the ground and was limited below the century mark in 13 of their 16 outings. The team totaled 355 running plays, the fifth-fewest in the league. The club’s leading rusher was former Pro Bowler David Johnson, who accounted for 940 yards and seven scores. The Cards as a team finished with 1,342 yards on the ground and nine rushing touchdowns.
But all that changed with the addition of head coach Kliff Kingsbury and rookie quarterback Kyler Murray in 2019. The latter certainly did he share when it came to improving Arizona’s running attack, finishing with 544 yards and four touchdowns. But the big pickup was the acquisition of running back Kenyan Drake in a midseason trade with the Miami Dolphins.
Thanks to a late-season surge, he would lead the club with 643 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground in just eight outings with the franchise.
In Arizona’s final three games, Drake amassed a combined 58 carries for 363 yards and seven scores. If he picks up where he left off this season, he and the Cardinals’ offense (which added wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins via trade this year, analysis by ESPN’s Bill Barnwell) could be highly dangerous.
1. A standout season from rookie Isaiah Simmons and the defense.
Talk about a player who could cure what ails the Arizona defense? Here is part of NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein’s analysis on Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons.
"“Ascending hybrid talent with rare length, speed and versatility to create mismatches for the offense, depending upon alignment. He has a bachelor’s at three positions (slot corner, safety, linebacker) but could earn a master’s degree in complex workload with a more focused and defined job description than “jack-of-all-trades.” He can handle zone or man coverage from a variety of spots on the field, which gives defensive coordinators a chance to disguise blitz packages and exotic post-snap looks…”"
This past season, Vance Joseph’s unit allowed the most total yards in the league and the second-most passing yards in the NFL. Despite a respectable 40 sacks (19 by play-making outside linebacker Chandler Jones), the Cards allowed a whopping 38 touchdown passes — 16 by tight ends, five by running backs and one by Saints’ quarterback Taysom Hill.
In free agency, general manager Steve Keim added defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (Bills) and linebackers Devon Kennard (Lions) and De’Vondre Campbell (Falcons). Along with Simmons, the Cardinals used four of their six draft choices on this side of the ball. Joseph’s defense must make a huge leap this season.