Arizona Cardinals: 2016 opponents

The 2015 regular season now complete, the Arizona Cardinals now officially know their 2016 opponents

The Arizona Cardinals now know their home and away opponents for the 2016 regular season.  The time and dates for the season will be released sometime in April.

The Cardinals home schedule:

San Francisco 49ers, St.Louis (or Los Angeles) Rams, Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

So outside the NFC West, the Cardinals will host the Patriots and Jets.  Neither team has visited Arizona at University of Phoenix Stadium in the regular season.  The Patriots have played two Super Bowls here.  The Redskins finished in first place in the NFC East, so the Cardinals get that game at home.

They will have to go on the road to face the NFC North winner and they play the entire NFC South in 2016.  The Saints will be playing in Arizona for the second-straight season while the Bucs have not visited Arizona since 2010.

The Cardinals road schedule:

San Francisco 49ers, St.Louis/LA Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons

The Cardinals will go to Miami and Buffalo for the first time since 2004.  The last two meetings between both the Cardinals-Dolphins and Cardinals-Bills have been at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Cardinals will also have the tough task of going to Carolina, Minnesota, and Atlanta.  They will be playing Minnesota in their brand new stadium, slated to open in 2016 and will play their last game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  The Falcons new stadium will open in 2017.

The Cardinals avoided the red-hot Panthers during the 2015 regular season but there is a chance the two could face each other in the playoffs.  If that is the case, that game too would be in Charlotte.  The one-toss up in the schedule right now is whether the Cardinals will go to St. Louis or Los Angeles to play the Rams next season.