Week 6 Consensus NFL Power Rankings: Cardinals Sink to Bottom

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals, to perhaps no surprise, are near the bottom of several NFL power rankings as we move into Week 6.

As the Cardinals prepare for the Los Angeles Rams, here's where they sit among various NFL power rankings:

Pro Football Talk: 27 (24 last week)

Mike Florio: "The Week 1 win over the Chargers becomes less impressive by the week."

Our take: Very fair assessment, though in the moment Arizona's Week 1 victory was very impressive. The Cardinals weren't far away from stacking a couple more wins to their record, either.

Sports Illustrated: 29 (29 last week)

Conor Orr: "As Kyle Odegard noted, we now have a full season sample size of Jacoby Brissett as the Cardinals’ starter, albeit between two different head coaches. The result? 2–15 record, 35th in total EPA among qualifying quarterbacks. But, as Mike LaFleur said after Sunday’s loss, I truly don’t think he’s the problem. When the Lions can simply double your best wideouts and wreak havoc, there are larger issues afoot."

Our take: While Brissett may not be the problem, he's also not the solution, either. Also, we as a society need to decide if wins are going to be a quarterback stat or not.

CBS Sports: 27 (25 last week)

Pete Prisco: "The defense is a mess right now and they don't do enough on offense. At some point, they have to play rookie Carson Beck at quarterback."

Our take: They will have to play Beck at some point, though there also remains a strong possibility Gardner Minshew enters action before Beck does.

The Athletic: 29 (28 last week)

Josh Kendall/Chad Graff: "That season-opening win feels like ancient history. They’ve lost four straight games and surrendered 30 or more points in all four of them. At least they got a second-round pick back for Marvin Harrison Jr."

Our take: The return for Harrison was about as good as it was going to get for Arizona. They did well to get a second for a receiver who had just five receptions this season.

ESPN: 29 (29 last week)

Josh Weinfuss: "Arizona is giving up a league-high 32.4 points per game and has the second-worst point differential in the NFL (minus-54). But the core of the Cardinals' defensive issues are coming against the pass. Arizona is giving up a league-worst 8.5 net yards per attempt and 236.8 passing yards per game (25th in the NFL). And when it comes time to stop touchdown passes, the Cardinals continue to struggle, with opposing quarterbacks completing 10.1% of their passes for touchdowns (the highest rate in the NFL)."

Our take: The Cardinals' defense has been so bad, people were legitimately surprised Arizona has retained defensive coordinator Nick Rallis for another week. Arizona's allowed 30+ points in four straight weeks and there's no clear signs of a turnaround coming soon.

NFL.com: 31 (26 last week)

Nick Shook: "In the first few weeks of this season, the Cardinals ostensibly proved they could score enough to keep up with most teams, even if their defense couldn’t do its part. That seemed to position them well against a Lions team that dragged a porous defense through the opening month, but that just wasn't the case on Sunday in the desert. Arizona scored once, then went completely quiet, reducing its offense to a chuck-and-pray approach on third-and-long and completely eliminating Jeremiyah Love from the game plan because of the score difference. With all due respect to Jacoby Brissett, you’re not going to win many games when he’s averaging 40 throws per outing."

Our take: This was the largest tumble for the Cardinals, falling five spots after last week. Shook is right, however: Arizona had a golden opportunity to take advantage of a poor Lions defense and they simply couldn't.

Yahoo!: 29 (27 last week)

Frank Schwab: "Trading Marvin Harrison Jr. was best for everyone involved, but let's not celebrate the Cardinals too much for getting a second-round pick back in a trade with the Texans. Arizona got very little out of the fourth overall pick in a loaded 2024 NFL Draft. That's horrendous, even if the Cardinals recouped some value. As Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic pointed out , the Cardinals have already moved on from four of the last six players they drafted in the top 10 overall: Josh Rosen, Kyler Murray , Isaiah Simmons and Harrison."

Our take: Moving on from Harrison was indeed the right decision, and as we stated above, a second-round pick was the best they were going to get — all things considered. Disappointing? Massively, especially given the expectations he had entering the league. However, the Cardinals and Harrison both get a much-needed fresh start.

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