There's finally a bit of hope starting to sprout around the Arizona Cardinals. The franchise has been hovering near the bottom of the NFL for years, leaving fans frustrated.
With a relatively easy set of 2025 opponents, this may be the Cardinals' year to make a playoff run for the first time in quite a while.
Arizona Cardinals should breeze through 2025 opponents
Okay, let me get this out of the way: There are no easy games in the NFL. Even in games where there's a clear talent discrepancy, either team is capable of coming out on top. Just last season, the Las Vegas Raiders beat the Baltimore Ravens, and the Tennessee Titans beat the Houston Texans. It's where the phrase "any given Sunday" comes from.
That being said, the Arizona Cardinals should be favored in most of their matchups.
The full NFL schedule won't be released until Wednesday, May 14th at 8 PM Eastern time, but we already have intel on which teams the Cardinals will be playing in 2025.
Arizona is set to play some of the worst teams in the NFL this season. Their full list of opponents includes bottom-dwellers like the Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars. If Kyler Murray and the Cardinals play up to their potential, each of those games should be decisive wins.
In fact, the Cardinals have one of the easiest schedules in the NFL this year. Based on opponent win percentage in 2024, Arizona has the sixth-lightest schedule in the league. Of course, the San Francisco 49ers were gifted the easiest schedule of any team.
Full strength of schedule list is here! 💪
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) May 9, 2025
📺: @NFL Schedule Release — 5/14 8pm ET on @nflnetwork/@espn2
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/v8kyjBSXp5
The Arizona Cardinals are due for a true playoff run. In 2024, they were in the perfect position to finally reclaim the NFC West title before watching it slip away in the back half of the season. Arizona hasn't won the division since 2015. That was with Carson Palmer at quarterback and Bruce Arians as head coach.
It's time for this era of Arizona Cardinals football to replace its identity as bottom-feeders with one of contenders. After acing free agency and the NFL Draft, the Cardinals have the roster to do it. With this set of opponents, they have the path to do it. Now, they just need to put it all together on the field.