Cardinals Have One of NFL's Toughest Remaining Schedules

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals haven't exactly found success in the early portion of the 2023 season, though the team has fought hard and performed far better than anticipated under first-year head coach Jonathan Gannon.

Through five weeks of football, the Cardinals are just 1-4 despite being competitive in all of their games. They're just one of seven teams that have one or less win at this point in time.

Out of those teams, only the Minnesota Vikings (1-4 with a differential of -12) have a better point differential than Arizona (-12).

When it comes to projecting the rest of the 2023 season, ESPN NFL analyst Mike Clay compiled rest of season strength of schedule rankings.

He has the Cardinals with the fourth-toughest slate of games ahead:

Rest-of-Season NFL Strength of Schedule based on my current evaluation of each team. Green = Easier Red = Harder

Falcons 😀
Bengals 😱 pic.twitter.com/XzGVminAvs
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) October 10, 2023

Out of their remaining ten opponents, only three opponents are below .500:

Los Angeles Rams (2-3) *twice

Houston Texans (2-3)

Chicago Bears (1-4)

Only one team is exactly at .500, as the Cleveland Browns are 2-2 and fresh off their Week 5 bye.

Four teams (Seattle Seahawks who they play twice, Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers) have three wins while the Cardinals still have one more matchup with the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles - both of whom are undefeated at 5-0.

Their last two-of-three games are on the road.

The Cardinals have battled the injury bug heavily to begin the season.

Kyler Murray still hasn't been activated from PUP. Third-round pick Garrett Williams has yet to see the field after being activated last week. Defensive starters in Budda Baker and L.J. Collier are each on injured reserve while running back James Conner recently joined them.