The Arizona Cardinals (3–5) travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on the NFC West leading Seattle Seahawks (6–2) at 1:25 p.m. PST on Sunday at Lumen Field.
The Cardinals officially tapped Jacoby Brissett as QB1 this week after Kyler Murray was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon will need to utilize the passing attack as his primary option, as it will be incredibly hard to establish the run against Seattle’s defense, which ranks second against the run, and allows only 90 rushing yards per game.
However, Seattle will likely be without Ernest Jones IV, as he nurses a knee injury that he aggravated on Sunday Night Football last week against the Washington Commanders.
In his first three games, Brissett has averaged 286.7 yards per game with a passer rating of 103.1. He has taken control of an offense that in the past has struggled.
Moving on to defense, the Cardinals are down three defensive starters as of today. Both starting cornerbacks, Will Johnson and Max Melton, are out, along with their captain, Mack Wilson. Gannon will be relying on two young, inexperienced cornerbacks to lock down one of the passing games in the league. Not to mention, another rookie, Cody Simon, taking over the duties of captain.
Seattle will be without rookie Tory Horton, but replacing him is Rashid Shaheed, whom the team acquired at the trade deadline. Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Shaheed will line up against Denzel Burke and Kei’Trel Clark, who are replacing Johnson and Melton.
While Seattle is missing a couple of key pieces on both sides of the ball, it will be hard for Arizona to overcome the fact that they are down both starting corners against a top-five passing offense in the league.
Final Prediction: Arizona 14 Seattle 34