Week 4 Consensus NFL Power Rankings: Cardinals Surprisingly Climb Despite Loss

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals have suffered back to back losses entering Week 4, and dating back to last season, have lost their last 10-of-11 games.

That might not be fair to new head coach Mike LaFleur, who has largely found his team to be competitive despite the 1-2 record. There's room for massive improvement, though the general consensus around the Cardinals is hope for the future is viable.

Until then, they'll continue to rank near the bottom of every NFL power rankings list — but how far can they go?

Arizona, surprisingly, moved up in more than a couple of power rankings this week.

Where national outlets have the Cardinals ahead of Week 4:

ESPN: No. 28

The Cardinals dropped two spots in ESPN's rankings, and Josh Weinfuss says Jacoby Brissett has been the team's biggest fantasy football surprise:

"Brissett is on 4.5% of ESPN rosters and is the QB16 after Sunday's loss. That might be middle of the pack among starters, but it's surprising when considering he was ranked 50th among quarterbacks in ADP. Brissett is averaging 16.2 points per game, which ranks 39th overall. He was ranked 361st overall before the season started."

CBS Sports: No. 23

Despite the loss, Pete Prisco actually had the Cardinals up three spots in his Week 4 power rankings:

"They battled against the 49ers, but the defense just wasn't good enough. They let Brock Purdy carve them up," he wrote.

No moral victories in the NFL world, but in the realm of power rankings, playing tough sure counts for something.

Yahoo!: No. 28

Frank Schwab also bumped the Cardinals up by one spot despite losing.

"The Cardinals didn't play poorly against the 49ers, cutting their deficit to one score three different times in the fourth quarter. With that and a win at the Chargers already, the Cardinals might be a tougher out than expected," he said.

Arizona was the only team in the bottom five to move up.

FOX Sports: No. 27

The Cardinals might not have moved up in the world of FOX's power rankings, though they remained the same as last week's position.

Ralph Vacchiano explained why:

"They really do have some impressive, young, offensive weapons. Head coach Mike LaFleur probably can do a lot this season with RB Jeremiyah Love, WR Michael Wilson and TE Trey McBride. Maybe he’ll eventually get something out of WR Marvin Harrison Jr., too. And QB Jacoby Brissett sure will throw a lot of passes for a lot of yards. But that might just mean they’re going to lose a lot of high-scoring games.

"Arizona will have a shot to beat the broken-down Giants this week. But this team lives in the NFC West, so it's going to take a lot of lumps."

The Athletic: No. 28

We're back to the Cardinals dropping after their Week 3 loss, as The Athletic docked them two spots from last week's No. 26 position:

Josh Kendall and Chad Graff tackled each team's QB confidence meter. Here's what they said about Brissett:

"Jacoby Brissett had to hold out this offseason just to convince the Cardinals to make him the 19th-highest-paid quarterback in the league. Brissett is living up to his end of the deal. He’s 17th in the NFL in EPA per dropback (0.07), 16th in passing yards (652) and sixth in completion percentage (70.1) while throwing more passes than all but four quarterbacks."

NFL.com: No. 26

Arizona received their biggest bump from Nick Shook, who saw the Cardinals leapfrog four spots in spite of walking out of Levi's Stadium as losers.

"I’ll give credit to the Cardinals for refusing to quit Sunday in a game in which lesser teams would have laid down and accepted defeat. There is still plenty to clean up, especially for a defense that gave up a ton of big plays to the 49ers," he said.

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