Bleacher Report Says Cardinals Can Make Major Leap This Offseason
If you've followed the Arizona Cardinals at all this season, it's felt as if doom and gloom are the nature of the business lately.
Kyler Murray's torn ACL/meniscus, a 4-13 record which led to Kliff Kingsbury's departure and a new general manage have kept the Cardinals at the forefront of headlines in recent months.
The pending 30+ free agents Arizona is set to make decisions on will give plenty of leeway for whoever is ultimately in charge to shape and the mold the roster how they please.
Many view the Cardinals as a potential team to hit the rebuild button, yet Bleacher Report believes they're a good offseason away from getting right back in the playoff hunt for 2023.
Following in the footsteps of the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks, Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots, the Cardinals land in the final slot of teams who are in position to make a major leap this offseason:
Bleacher Report Says Cardinals Can Make Major Leap This Offseason
"The debate regarding the final spot here involved the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts, both of whom possess top-four draft picks and rank above the league median in terms of projected cap space," said Brad Gagnon.
"But the Cardinals at least have a potential phenom in Kyler Murray at quarterback, they ranked slightly higher than Indy in DVOA despite a worse record (4-13 versus 4-12-1), and they do have the slightly higher pick (third versus fourth) as well as a little more projected cap room ($13.5 million versus $11.9 million).
"They'll have to take care of critical in-house impending free agents Byron Murphy and Zach Allen, but they were a top-10 DVOA team with Murray in 2021. That has to count for something as they prepare to flex their muscles in free agency and with the No. 3 overall pick in April's draft.
"With the right moves from a potentially refreshing new regime, and with the right amount of progress from Murray as he recovers from a knee injury, the Cards could at least return to the wild-card picture in 2023."
Murray's recovery will tell the story of 2023: If he's able to return sooner rather than later, there may be hope for the Cardinals to rescue their season. Arizona enters a pivotal offseason with questions everywhere, but there's at least potential for the ship to head in the right direction.
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