Three looming offseason questions are in play for the Arizona Cardinals
Thing seem quiet for most teams, if you aren’t the Browns, Panthers or Broncos this week, because the focus is on the Super Bowl and the game this weekend in Santa Clara. This is to be expected, but as the game ends on Sunday Night, there’s going to be considerable work to be done by just about every team. While we’ll take a look at what the Arizona Cardinals should be targeting later next week and a look at their salary cap numbers, there’s a few questions that we hope to answer this offseason.
Will the Offensive Line Remain?
There’s been a lot of talk about this O-line over the last couple of seasons, and for good reason. Steve Keim has invested draft picks and countless amounts of dollars in this line by bringing in top-notch players to protect Carson Palmer and beef up the run game. For 3/4ths of the season, this was the case but as the season wore on, it wasn’t quite what you expected. Palmer and he offense seemed to slow up in the last few weeks of the season, and the disastrous turn against a very good Panthers defense is better left to be forgotten.
So what will Steve Keim do, will he let the line come together and gel and give high draft picks like D.J. Humphries and Jonathan Cooper a chance to crack the starters? My gut is the Cardinals will not beef up the line anymore, with reliable backups and three of the five positions on the line accounted for (Bobbie Massie should retain his spot), there are positions of need elsewhere.
What do the Cardinals do with the 29th pick?
This question is best left answered after free agency opens in early March but there is a lot of questions on the roster as we move into the signing period and beyond for draft picks. Will the Cardinals choose a quarterback for the first time in the first round since Matt Leinart? Will they hope to land a mid-round prospect that can be molded into something more. Will Drew Stanton be back next season (he’s a free agent)? The answers to those questions may then lead to the answer to our main question which seems to be, will it be a quarterback or will it be something else. The Cardinals haven’t chosen this late in the first round since the 2009 Draft (when they chose 31st).
Can the team take the next step?
Even with a great season, which was nothing to scoff at, the Cardinals are once again also-rans in a league that is built on results. Teams like the Patriots, Broncos, Steelers and Ravens are built on success and consistent success. The Cardinals have now had back-to-back-to-back double digit win seasons (10, 11, 13), but are once again not playing in the Super Bowl this weekend. All the pieces are in place and the talent is on the roster, what does the team need to really, finally, get over the hump and make the league take notice? Throw more prime time games at them? Sure, the team was 5-0 in national night games this season. Give them a harder schedule to prove themselves? 2016 will certainly be difficult after finishing first in the division.
At some point the team will either progress or regress (again) unless the nature of sustained success can be furthered through the culture of the team, something that Arians and Keim are successfully doing, but it is still going to take some work.
So with a lull before the storm of free agency, the draft, OTAs and training camp, can these questions be answered definitively and give fans something to talk about in the doldrums of the spring when we’re watching baseball (and loving it) but eagerly awaiting the football season to ramp back up.