A New Era of Cardinals Football is Here
The Arizona Cardinals dropped their tough-fought final game to the Seattle Seahawks, capping off a four-win season. This week's contest was the final piece of the mosaic that is Arizona's 2023 season, and what could be to come in 2024.
Here are the takeaways from the Cards' final game of the Jonathan Gannon era's inaugural season.
This team's identity is in the run game
Week after week, the Cardinals ran the ball well. Week 18 was no different, and put an exclamation point on an incredible season for RB James Conner.
The Cardinals ran efficiently and often, averaging 5.4 yards per carry as a team and racking up over 200 rushing yards - 150 of which came from Conner's monstrous game.
Despite spending four weeks on injured reserve, Conner's big day completed his first career 1,000-yard season. Conner finished the day with 204 total yards of offense and an explosive rushing touchdown.
2023 was the year of the run, and 2024 needs to continue that trend. Conner has solidified himself as the focal point of the offense, and he doesn't show signs of slowing down, despite his age.
A complementary back, preferably one who can take over Conner's workhorse role would be an excellent pickup this off-season, though Drew Petzing's ability to scheme chunk plays out of the run game, the offensive line's exceptional run-blocking and Conner's bulldozer ethos will all return in 2024.
RTDB.
Kyler Murray is becoming unlocked
The numbers haven't been perfect for Murray, but the fire has been there. Murray has been able to begin to settle in to an offense that doesn't restrict him as much as Kliff Kingsbury's air raid scheme did.
Petzing was able to use Murray under center, utilizing play action and screens when necessary, but without forcing Murray to stay within the boundaries of a college-style scripted offense.
Murray delivered another ace performance, completing 22 of his 30 passes for 262 yards and a score. Despite throwing three incompletions on the first drive and looking inaccurate to start the game, the 26-year old QB again settled into deadeye accuracy, taking some shots down the field, keeping the ball out of harm's way and creating plays, including a 33-yard scamper off a play-action boot and a high-pointed beauty of a touchdown pass to TE Trey McBride.
Murray's 110.7 passer rating was the second week in a row the QB had a passer rating above 110. Over the final three games of the season, Murray accounted for 813 total yards, six total touchdowns and just one turnover.
Murray finishes 2023 with a 3-5 record as a starter, but with quality wins over Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and a game-winning drive against Atlanta.
In all seriousness, Murray executed another game-winning drive against Seattle, considering he brought them down to Matt Prater's range.
Murray noted post-game that this four-win team was "one of my favorite teams to ever be a part of." This is likely only a fraction of where Murray can go.
But with the keys to the future of Arizona's squad, and an offense where he can excel (with some added weapons, hopefully), we could see elite-level play from K1 very soon.
Michael Wilson will be a part of this team's future
After being nearly silent for weeks, and injured for five, rookie WR Michael Wilson finally showed out as the big-bodied, contested-catch target Arizona needs more of. He led Arizona in both receptions and receiving yards, hauling in six passes for 95 yards.
Two of his catches came on the (nearly) game-winning drive, in crucial situations. With Murray scrambling away from pressure, Wilson came back towards his QB and hauled in a razor-thin sideline grab.
Later, on third-and-eight, Murray went back to his big WR. In one-on-one coverage, Wilson came down with the big conversion and picked up 12 yards, getting the Cards to the edge of Prater's range.
Wilson certainly hasn't contributed in a huge way to this team's success yet, but with all the talk about needing bigger receivers and guys who can create separation, Wilson showed that he has the potential to be that contributor on this team, although hopefully alongside an added elite receiver from either the draft or free agency (or both).
Culture Matters
It won't show up in the numbers, and it won't override the notch in the L column, but it provides a sense of hope that we haven't seen in this Cardinals team in a while.
Jonathan Gannon's guys want to suit up and fight hard for him, and despite some exceptionally rough games, the Cardinals generally fought hard and played their opponents close.
Losing to a division opponent is never a good thing, but Gannon's squad fought hard and held the Seahawks to very modest numbers defensively. With the exception of a couple blown coverages, there was almost nothing there for Geno Smith and the other birds.
Culture is what does that. A roster that- with all respect to the players who gave their all this season - has this little talent outside of a few severely underrated players has no business making their opponents take them seriously so often.
Winning cures everything. However, the loss does secure the four-spot in the 2024 draft, when landing as high as seventh was a possibility.
But there is winning football on the horizon, Arizona. The new era has begun.
