Battling Birds

By Peyton Schultze

Chandler Jones (#55) has quietly become one of the best defensive players in all of football as the leader of the Cardinals’ defense (via AZ Central).

“Potential top 5 pick in the 2020 Draft.”

“One of the bottom five defenses in football.”

“Kliff Kingsbury should not have a job in the NFL.”

“Kyler Murray doesn’t have what it takes to be a franchise quarterback.”

“Worst team in the NFC.”

The Arizona Cardinals have faced plenty of harsh statements from people all around the league over the past year or so, many of which were somewhat deserved after coming off a league worst 3-13 campaign. Yet after a 3-4-1 start that has the Cardinals in a fight for a wild card spot in a loaded conference, Arizona finally has some real hope on the horizon for a return to success for the franchise. With an improving defense and a confident coach/quarterback combo that looks like a great pairing for the next decade or so, the Cardinals finally look like a team with some real potential right now and in the future.

Kyler Murray has lived up to the hype so far despite a limited supporting cast in his first year under center for Arizona (via Flipboard).

Even though it is only Week 9, this Cardinals’ squad has truly come a long way so far this season. It all began in a miserable preseason game at home against the Raiders, in which Arizona looked truly pathetic and lethargic on both sides of the ball. That terrible play transferred into the regular season and in the Cardinals’ real first half of meaningful football on the season in Week 1 versus the Detroit Lions, in which the Cardinals struggled to get anything going. Even just 30 minutes inti the start of the season, all hope for the new season seemed lost for Cardinals’ fans. An inconsistent offensive line couldn’t block anyone up front. The Cardinals’ defense was getting shredded by Lions’ quarterback Matthew Stafford. Even Kyler Murray looked uncomfortable in his first career start in the league.

Yet the Cardinals’ second half changed everything. Even though Arizona eventually wound up tying the Lions in overtime, Arizona found some hidden momentum in their big time comeback that has helped propel this team to live above their previous expectations. Outside of a few Cardinals’ fans, nobody expected much from this squad in the first year of the Murray/Kingsbury era. Yet Arizona is somehow in the playoff hunt midway through the season in an extremely tough NFC, which truly speaks volumes to how far this team, and this organization as a whole, has come from their poor season a year ago.

It is hard to give all the credit for Arizona’s surprising season to any one player, but rookie quarterback Kyler Murray has truly played like a capable franchise quarterback and has stepped into the role of the team’s leader right away. Similar to Lamar Jackson’s projection coming out of college and heading into Baltimore as their quarterback to replace Joe Flacco, Murray has been asked to help transform the organization as a whole and lead this team into a new era of successful football. Despite his small size and quiet personality, the University of Oklahoma product has been excellent at the pro level so far this season, and has truly shown some qualities that many great quarterbacks lack. With a very unique skillset of pocket awareness, arm strength, and quickness outside of the pocket, Murray has some real tools at his arsenal that should make him a longtime Arizona Cardinal. Murray has had his fair share of struggles like any rookie quarterback (he played rather poorly last week against the loaded New Orleans Saints), but Arizona looks like they have a real keeper for the foreseeable future.

Murray and the Cardinals face a tough test on Halloween night against Jimmy Garoppolo and the undefeated San Francisco 49ers (via CappersPicks).

Elsewhere, the Cardinals have actually been relatively solid on offense compared to how putrid they were a season ago. With Murray now leading the charge, a great offensive backfield combination of David Johnson and Chase Edmonds has been a major focal point of the offense and has had some great moments in the early season. Johnson’s nagging injury problems have been somewhat of a pest all season long, but Edmonds has been great in his limited time in the lineup behind a somewhat shaky offensive line. The Cardinals also just acquired young running back Kenyan Drake from the Miami Dolphins at the trade deadline, and Drake will look to have an immediate role on offense if Johnson remains limited in action. In addition to this, longtime Cardinal and future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald has had another great season for the Bird Gang. Ranking second on the NFL’s all-time catch list, Fitzgerald has been a staple of excellence throughout his time in Arizona and has been a major part of Murray’s early career success from a on-and-off-the-field perspective. It certainly seems far fetched for this offense to make any noise as one of the best in the NFL, but this is a group that is improving every single week in Kliff Kingsbury’s first year as head coach in the desert.

Arizona’s defense, surprisingly, has actually been a major part of what has held them back from further success on the season. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, the controversial ex-Broncos head coach, has struggled leading this defense to any kind of consistent production all season, and his unit currently sits near the bottom of the league in terms of defensive yardage (407.1 yards per game allowed, 29th in the NFL). However, the Cardinals have had some missing players on defense all season long, such as a key suspension that held Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson out of the lineup for several games, and have not really played a full game with all of their defensive starters on the field at once. They’ll face perhaps their biggest challenge of the season this Thursday night against the lethal 49ers’ run game, which has caused issues for opposing defenses all season long. In order to have any kind of defensive success against San Francisco, look for big games from the excellent young safety Budda Baker and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Chandler Jones, whose 8.5 sacks ranks third in the league.

Despite being at home, the struggling Arizona defense will face a major task on Thursday night against a divisional opponent (via USA Today).

Even with the new quarterback and coach combo in Arizona, nobody could have expected that the Cardinals would be sitting at a solid record of 3-4-1 midway through the NFL’s 100th season. Yet with Murray playing like an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate and sudden signs of life all around the clubhouse, Arizona finally has a chance to compete in the NFC West again. Even so, the Cardinals have not even tapped their full potential due to a struggling defense and young offense, both of which have plenty of room for improvement. It will still be a long road toward getting back into Super Bowl contention in a ridiculously talented NFC, but this is the start to the season that the Cardinals needed to inspire some confidence in their dedicated fanbase known as the “Red Sea”.

Hope can go a long way in the NFL, and the Cardinals have plenty of it all around them right now with Kingsbury and Murray in charge. The Cardinals will have to overcome an uber talented division against the emerging 49ers, steady Seahawks, and potent Rams now and in future seasons, but they at least have some pieces in some key areas that should give this organization a chance at success for the first time since Carson Palmer’s tenure in the Copper State. It’s a long way to the top if the Cardinals want to rock and roll again in the desert, but the 2019 regular season is a great start for what looks like a potentially successful rebuild.