The 2023 Arizona Cardinals will be missing out on a golden opportunity to take advantage of what should be an extremely mediocre NFC.
Not much is expected out of the Arizona Cardinals in 2023. Monti Ossenfort, the club's first-year general manager, has done very little over the past several months to strengthen the team's roster. In fact, that many of the league's observers believe that the Cards will be awful enough to obtain the first-overall pick in next year's draft.
Not surprisingly, the snakebitten franchise picked one of the worst years to be at the bottom of the barrel. At the moment, the competition in the NFC is incredibly weak. Even a small amount of effort out of Ossenfort to improve the team this offseason could have resulted in a postseason berth for the Super Bowl-starved Cardinals.
Working in Arizona's favor is the fact that most of the best quarterbacks are competing in the American Football Conference. In today's NFL, hoisting a Vince Lombardi Trophy would seem to be an almost impossible feat without an above-average passer in the locker room. Luckily for "Big Red", star signal-callers like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, and Trevor Lawrence all reside in the AFC.
Arizona Cardinals could benefit from residing in the quarterback-starved NFC
Fortunately for the Redbirds, the talent-level at the QB position is not as robust in the NFC. Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles would likely be regarded as the cream of the crop. Others like Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys), Kirk Cousins (Minnesota Vikings), Derek Carr (New Orleans Saints), and Matt Stafford (Los Angeles Rams) are good but not great.
There are other organizations in the Cards' conference who can contend without a superstar quarterback under center. Second-year pro Brock Purdy has a phenomenal group surrounding him with the San Francisco 49ers. Paired with the right mix of players, Daniel Jones (New York Giants), Geno Smith (Seattle Seahawks), and Jared Goff (Detroit Lions) can be solid starters as well.
When it comes to ranking the best passers in the NFC, Cardinals starter Kyler Murray would have to be near the top of that list. At just 25 years of age, the Texas native already has two Pro Bowls under his belt. Unfortunately, the devastating knee injury he suffered last December will sideline Murray for at least a portion of the upcoming campaign.
Though the hierarchy won't admit it, Arizona is definitely in "rebuilding" mode. While many would agree that a revamping of the roster was needed, the timing of doing so is far from ideal. If Ossenfort and his cohorts are lucky, the Cardinals will reach an elite level before the rest of the NFC is able to catch up with the progress being made in the desert.