PFF provides harsh roster ranking for Arizona Cardinals

Each offseason, there are teams that have a boom type of offseason while others are quiet due to various factors. This offseason, teams like the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals made moves that show promise for the future moving forward. Teams like the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills were heavily criticized because of the moves they made or did not make. Despite offseasons being totally different, there is still the reality as to how people would rank each roster heading into the 2024 season.

Jim Wyman and Dalton Wasserman from Pro Football Focus created a 2024 NFL roster rankings list where they included the biggest strength and weakness from last season, X-factor, rookie player to watch and over/under win totals heading into next season.

Even though Monti Ossenfort delivered a strong offseason to Cardinals fans, Wyman and Wasserman are putting the Cardinals near the bottom of the list as the 28th overall team on this list. The teams that the Cardinals finished ahead of were the New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, New York Giants and Denver Broncos.

In this article, Wyman and Wasserman broke down the different categories which started out with their best strength from last season being the rushing attack led by James Conner. Arizona was one of the best running teams last season and now they get Kyler Murray back who can make plays with his legs and also drafted Trey Benson in the third round of the NFL Draft. The Cardinals not only brought in more of a running threat to help Conner, but they brought in run-blocking offensive linemen in Isaiah Adams and Evan Brown. In addition, drafting tight end Tip Reiman who can play on the line of scrimmage or in the backfield and be a fantastic lead blocker.

Wyman and Wasserman then went into discussing the Cardinals’ defense as the biggest weakness from last season, which is true. They had an average pass defense but were one of the worst run-defending units in the league. Ossenfort addressed these needs heavily in free agency in the NFL Draft by acquiring help at all three levels of the defense. In free agency, the Cardinals signed Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols to bring stability to the run stop. They also brought in cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting to help lockdown the secondary with Budda Baker and Jalen Thompson. In the draft, they took defensive end Darius Robinson and brought in three rookie cornerbacks.

Offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. was listed as the Cardinals’ x-factor player as he transitions from right tackle to now protecting Kyler Murray’s blindside. The second year player will be looking to keep Murray upright and keep the pressure off of him.

To no one’s surprise, Marvin Harrison Jr. was listed as the rookie to watch for Arizona which should be no shock to everyone. Finally, the win total over/under was set at 6.5 wins in which Wyman and Wasserman projected the Cardinals getting the over which is a great prediction seeing as how Arizona was already competitive with very little to work with last season. Now with all of their upgrades this offseason, there is a reason to believe that the Cardinals will be in the hunt for a playoff spot as long as everyone stays healthy.