Are the Cardinals no longer in the bottom tier?

The Arizona Cardinals don’t have a winning record heading into their annual bye, but are they no longer in the bottom tier of the NFL in 2019?

The Arizona Cardinals already have three wins on the season, as well as a tie. This guarantees that they will have a better record than they did a season ago. The wins aren’t coming quite like they were earlier in the season, but is there a reason to believe that the Cardinals are no longer one of the worst teams in the NFL at this juncture?

On the week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, give the Cardinals some respect by saying that they are no longer one of the teams we consider to be the worst in football (43:28).

“I’m in that they are not one of the five worst teams in the league, but they’re still bad,” said Verderame. “They’re still a bad football team. And I don’t know if I believe in [Kyler] Murray, I think he’s fun…I’m in that they’re better, but I’m out on if they’re good. Any good team should beat the Cardinals.”

“I do think that the Cardinals have moved off that lowest tier with like the [Cincinnati] Bengals, the [Washington] Redskins and [New York] Jets and [Miami] Dolphins,” said Schwartz. “They’re above that. Their defense is still horrendous, but the offense, you know, is playing well. They’re doing good things, they’re progressing.”

Both Schwartz and Verderame would say that it does seem the national media has great rooting interests in this team, mostly because of Murray and the Kliff Kingsbury offense. Many people really want to see this work in Phoenix and it’s certainly trending in that right direction at least offensively. Arizona is still the worst team in the NFC West but can hold its own against most.

For now, it’s about steady, incremental growth with this team. At worst, they have established a team identity. That will be huge for them in the coming years. They have a star player to build around in Murray. Once the Cardinals can get the defense going, this could be an exciting team to watch in the NFC West in the early 2020s.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Who wins the AFC Wild Card spots? (10:31)
• Is the NFC playoff picture already set? (13:28)
• Packers-49ers odds (30:59)
• Will a team sign Colin Kaepernick after workout? (46:56)

All this and more!

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