7 Arizona Cardinals were featured in the USA Today’s Top 100 Players for the 2016 season list.
Steven Ruiz of USA Today compiled a list ranking players that he thought would be among the best for the 2016 season. The rankings were not based on last year’s performances, and injury concerns were taken into account.
Division rival Seattle Seahawks led with the most selections at 9. The Cardinals along with the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots came in second with 7 selections each. The Los Angeles Rams had 5 selections, while the San Francisco 49ers had 1 selection.
The highest ranking Cardinal on the list was DB Tyrann Mathieu who finished 12th. Here is what Ruiz had to say about The Honey Badger:
"Mathieu was built to play in this pass-happy era. It’s hard to define his position because it changes every play. On early downs, he’s either a deep safety or a run defender in the box. On passing downs, he morphs into the best slot corner in the league."
Following Mathieu was his secondary partner, All-Pro Patrick Peterson. Peterson was the highest ranked corner on the list aside from Mathieu who plays both corner and safety. Here is what was said about Peterson who finished 20th:
"A slimmed-down Peterson bounced back from a rough 2014 season and emerged as the top corner in the league last year. He covered No. 1 receivers in man coverage and just about shut down every player we was assigned to."
Defensive end Calais Campbell was the last Cardinal who made an appearance in the Top 50. Campbell ranked at 36th, and was 4th ranked defensive end overall, just behind J.J. Watt (2), Michael Bennett (31) and Fletcher Cox (35). Ruiz highlighted Campbell’s strengths as a pass rush rusher:
"As a 3-4 defensive end, Campbell is never going to put up crazy statistics. He destroys opposing team’s running games and creates interior pressure consistently despite being the only pass rusher of note on Arizona’s roster these last few years. That will change next year thanks to the addition of Chandler Jones."
Round out the rest of the Cardinals were WR Larry Fitzgerald who finished 66th, QB Carson Palmer who finished 68th, RB David Johnson who finished 82nd and LB Chandler Jones who finished 89th.
It is great to see many Cardinal players getting the recognition they deserve on a national level. However, it still seems to be that many key players such as Palmer and Fitzgerald are being undervalued.
Arizona has improved on both sides of the ball, and should see players rankings improve come 2017.