Week 5 felt like a turning point for the Arizona Cardinals season, and not in a good way.
Marvin Harrison Jr. is officially a wasted top-five pick now that Arizona traded him to the Houston Texans. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have lost four straight games, largely thanks to a defense that has surrendered 30-plus points in each contest. The worst of it came Sunday in a 45-21 blowout loss at home against the Detroit Lions.
This already feels like another wasted season. And unfortunately, as a fan, it's becoming increasingly difficult to look ahead to the draft as the silver lining, seeing as Kyler Murray and Harrison are both now elsewhere.
At this point, Arizona's rebuild and long-term outlook would benefit from a hard reset.
1. Start Carson Beck over Jacoby Brissett
Jacoby Brissett isn't really the problem, but we've also seen a large enough sample size to know that he's also not the answer.
Truth be told, the Cardinals should've known that from last year's three-win season, yet they surprisingly decided to rework Brissett's deal instead. Brissett looked to be paid a salary reflective of a starter in this league. And while that was technically true, the issue was he was only a starter in terms of the depth chart and not the talent.
Mike LaFleur has already said he won't make a quarterback swap for Week 6 against the Los Angeles Rams, but that's another difficult matchup for the Cardinals.
Carson Beck may not help win more games in the short term, but finding a long-term answer at the position needs to take precedence above everything else this season. That means seeing what they have in Beck, giving them time to evaluate him before deciding whether to spend a first-round pick on the position next summer.
2. Fire DC Nick Rallis
Not only is there conversation regarding who the Cardinals should start at quarterback, but this season has already gotten so bad to the point where jobs should be in question from top to bottom of this organization.
Again, LaFleur has said he won't make such a drastic decision this week. He mentions the fact that the Cardinals were just yards away from defeating the New York Giants the week before.
But should Arizona really hang its hat on almost defeating a young Giants team led by inconsistent backup quarterback Jameis Winston? This Cardinals defense even let that offense score 36.
Through five games, Arizona's 32.4 points allowed per game is the worst in the entire league by a noticeable margin. By moving on from defensive coordinator Nick Rallis, the Cardinals would benefit from a fresh start.
3. Fire GM Monti Ossenfort
At the end of the day, the biggest issue with this entire Cardinals rebuild is that the roster simply isn't good enough. Even if they replace Rallis at defensive coordinator, there are still serious flaws on that side of the ball.
The largest hurdle in this rebuild is general manager Monti Ossenfort's poor track record. He's now 16-40 as the GM of the Arizona Cardinals.
Fans have been enduring this rebuild for multiple years now, and the roster still has serious, glaring holes at the most important positions of need: quarterback, tackle, guard, edge rusher, linebacker, etc.
The Harrison draft mistake should be the final nail in the coffin, though it remains to be seen if he's even on the hot seat. After all, the Cardinals now have over 50 games to get used to this losing brand of football Ossenfort has built in The Valley. Why should things be any different now?
Until the Cardinals move on from Ossenfort, they face an uphill battle in contending in the stacked NFC West. His backward way of building this roster by prioritizing skill positions hasn't resulted in wins, and the Cardinals need someone with a better understanding of what it takes to succeed in the NFL.
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