With the majority of free agency and NFL Draft being over, the Arizona Cardinals made some notable changes to improve their roster. In ESPN’s NFL Power Rankings, the Cardinals would just jump up one spot from No. 30 (where they were post free agency) to No. 29 now that the draft is over. In the power rankings, Josh Weinfuss talked about how the Cardinals had the best improvement with their defensive line this offseason.
The Cardinals are ahead in the power rankings over the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers which makes complete sense. At the same time, the Cardinals had a more successful offseason than all three of these teams. Arizona finds themselves behind the New York Giants which is just flat out questionable seeing as how the Giants lost a lot in free agency.
The most notable free agent defensive tackles the Cardinals went out and signed were Bilal Nichols from the Las Vegas Raiders and Justin Jones from the Chicago Bears. Arizona had one of the worst run defenses last season so it was a big priority to address that pressing need. In addition, the Cardinals drafted defensive linemen Darius Robinson in the first round of the NFL Draft, as well Xavier Thomas in the fifth round. Nick Rallis and Jonathan Gannon will have an opportunity to turn around the narrative of what the Cardinals’ defensive line was last season.
There is no doubt that Monti Ossenfort addressed the defensive line as much as possible, but it is surprising to see that the Cardinals only get recognition for the defensive line.
Ossenfort did so much more in other positions like wide receiver and the offensive line. The Cardinals are going to be a better football team in 2024 and while they earned a little bit of recognition, it is less than what they should have.