The NFL recently announced the Players of the Week for Week 6's slate of games. Unsurprisingly, Arizona Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland found himself representing the NFC Special Teams on that list.
Here were the players recognized from Week 6 from each conference:
NFC
- Caleb Williams, QB, Bears
- Martin Emerson, CB, Saints
- Chad Ryland, K, Cardinals
AFC
- C.J. Stroud, QB, Texans
- Jalen Ramsey, CB, Steelers
- Julius Chestnut, RB, Titans
Chad Ryland is having a resurgent season for the Cardinals
Ryland connected on all six of his field goal attempts for the Cardinals. It also just so happened to account for all 18 of their points in the shocking 18-16 upset over the Los Angeles Rams. That included a game-winning 43-yard field goal as time expired.
There were a few parallels between Week 6 and the Cardinals' other upset dating back to Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Both wins came at SoFi Stadium, and both upsets were thanks to key special teams contributions.
In Week 1 it was Simi Fehoko, coming up with a key blocked punt in the fourth quarter against the Chargers. Our week one takeaway was that relying on defense and special teams wasn't a sustainable formula for winning. That's even more apparent with the Cardinals 2-4 and the Week 1 win over the Chargers looking increasingly less impressive the longer they remain winless.
There's still serious roster holes Arizona needs to clean up going forward in this rebuild. But what has been a positive sign since is that Ryland has proven far more reliable than we initially gave him credit for.
Some of that was warranted as Ryland connected on 25-of-33 (75.8 percent of his attempts last season). Pair that with a Jacoby Brissett-led offense that struggled in the red zone, and it was easy to see how it would be difficult for the Cardinals to put points on the board.
However, Ryland has had a surprising turnaround to start the season. Through six games, he's been far more accurate: 14-of-16, good for 87.5 percent.
It's been an up-and-down career for Ryland, who ideally would be more consistent on a year-to-year basis. Here are his percentages now through four years, the first being with the New England Patriots (2023) and the remaining in Arizona (2024-26): 64, 87.5, 75.8, 87.5.
Is this like a weird even-odd, every-other-year type trend? Is six games too little of a sample size to expect him to continue this bounceback season?
After seeing Ryland singlehandedly carry this Cardinals offense to what has perhaps been the biggest upset of the season to date, he deserves the benefit of the doubt that this production is here to stay.
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