Addressing Five common Cardinals narratives

The worst part of any sport’s offseason is the narratives that build momentum without any games to support or destroy them. So it is with the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL, where opinions run wild — some of them well supported; some of them not so much.

As the season opener in Buffalo approaches, I teamed up with PHNX Sports’ Johnny Venerable and Bo Brack to dissect five of the most common narratives surrounding the Cardinals. There is a written analysis of each, and then Johnny and Bo’s takes on each narrative.

Maybe you have another one that you feel we neglected. Let us know in the comments or in the replies on Twitter. It may provide fodder for further content. 

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1. GM Monti Ossenfort should have gone all in to improve an edge rushing group that is one of the worst in the NFL.

This is probably the greatest and most frequent criticism of the Cardinals second-year GM. There are critics who even believe he should have swung for the fences with this group last season — in his first year on the job.

Let’s start there because that idea is absurd. Ossenfort was in the midst of a complete tear-down. You don’t buy luxury items when you don’t even have a solid foundation. That’s not how rebuilds work. Ossenfort was still charting a course for the franchise after years of mismanagement by former GM Steve Keim. Besides, how do we know that a premium edge rusher would have been willing to join the rebuilding Cardinals last season? Would Ossenfort have had to pay a premium to land him?

Ossenfort knew that he wanted to build through the draft. He knew that he had a lot of areas to address. Some analysts felt he should have gone after an edge rusher with his first pick in the 2023 or 2024 drafts, but there is a strong argument to be made for solidifying the offensive line and taking Harrison, who has game-breaking potential.

Which brings us to his year-two offseason moves. Kyler Murray’s contract extension kicked in this season. Harrison is in the fold and Johnson has moved from right tackle to left tackle. There is a lot of momentum around this team right now. The offense could be very good if its health holds up. Ossenfort even made subtle moves to shore up the defense against the run, but he didn’t make any moves in free agency to add to a pass rush that finished 30th in sacks (33), 31st in QB pressures (98), and last in QB knockdowns (23) in 2023.

Ossenfort is taking a gamble here. Windows of opportunity are shorter in the NFL than in other sports due to the constraints of the salary cap on a 53-man roster. If this offense takes off and the pass rush holds the Cardinals back from becoming a playoff team, will Ossenfort regret not seizing the day? Will it cost him in the eyes of his owner?

It’s a tough riddle to parse because there are multiple variables to which the critics are not privy. First, which players on the market actually interested Arizona? What did the market look like when Ossenfort was talking to other GMs or agents about those players, most of whom were a tick away, or already on the wrong side of 30? Did the Cardinals’ scouts and player evaluators believe that any of the players available in free agency or via trade were worth the acquisition cost? What did their own player evaluations say — player evaluations that are far more honed, by the way, than the untrained eyes of media critics? 

There remains the possibility that Ossenfort could still engineer a trade midway through the season if the Cardinals survive a gauntlet of six 2023 playoff teams in their first eight games? But maybe he believes that 2025 is the year to go all in when his pieces have matured, when BJ Ojulari and Darius Robinson have proven what they can contribute, when he has compiled more picks via the 2025 NFL Draft, and when the Cardinals have enough of their own guys in place to push for something bigger?

The other key point to consider? Ossenfort is projected to have more than $80 million in cap space in 2025. Only New England and Washington are currently projected to have more, and they have unproven quarterbacks.

The Cardinals have a handful of veterans playing on expiring contracts including safety Budda Baker and running back James Conner. They will be 29 and 30 next season, respectively, when their current contracts expire. The Cardinals may have already drafted their replacements.

Ossenfort hasn’t said it outright, but it sure looks like year three of his tenure is the season in which he plans to cash in his chips. We’ll see if the gamble pays off.

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2. Kyler Murray doesn’t have the football IQ to become what Kurt Warner calls the “layup QB” and elevate his team.

We want to be clear. Warner never suggested that Murray lacks that sort of IQ. He sees potential in Murray as he comes of age, and he made that abundantly clear in this piece that PHNX published last month. 

There are plenty of others who don’t feel Murray is among the NFLs’ elite quarterbacks, however. That list includes NFL executives, coaches and scouts, who didn’t list Murray among the top 16 QBs in the league in this ESPN survey, instead relegating him to the “also receiving votes” category alongside Baker Mayfield. The same goes for the league’s own website, which ranks Murray No. 18.

This isn’t going to be the space where we debate rankings or other people’s perceptions. Although NFL insiders’ rankings carry more weight than media rankings, those opinions are based on the recent past and Murray hasn’t done much over the past two seasons to warrant elite status. 

We can talk about the factors that held him back, whether it was the talent around him, the previous GM and coach, or the ACL injury that sidelined him for the first half of last season. But at age 27, Murray is out of excuses. He has the support of his coaching staff, with whom he has forged a tight bond. He has the support of his GM, who could have gone out and drafted another QB but decided Murray was the guy to lead him to the promised land.

He has an array of enviable offensive weapons at his disposal. He may be playing behind the best offensive line of his six-year career. He has a better understanding of leadership, and that monster five-year extension kicks in this year.

It’s time for K1 to shine.

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3. Arizona plays hard but there’s still not enough talent here to be a playoff team.

Any reasonable analysis would dismiss this critique when it comes to the Cardinals offense. The offensive line has the potential to be the franchise’s best of this decade, there are myriad weapons in Harrison, Conner, Trey Benson, Michael Wilson, Greg Dortch and Trey McBride. Murray is healthy and focused. There is absolutely enough talent to be a playoff team on this side of the ball.

The defensive side is another story. Not many analysts were impressed with the additions of defensive linemen Bilal Nichols and Justin Jones. We’ve already discussed the challenges on the edge, and the cornerbacks are still untested, with a lot of youth and Sean Murphy-Bunting ascending to a shutdown corner spot for which nobody is certain he is equipped. If the defense can play average ball this season, the Cardinals could surprise in a league where quick turnarounds are common. If it can’t, well…

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4. Marvin Harrison Jr. will be the Cardinals offense this season: Fair or hyperbole?

There is no question that the Cardinals will try to take full advantage of Harrison’s obvious talent. His size, skill and athleticism are eye-popping when you watch them up close in practice. What we don’t know for certain is how opposing defenses will treat him. Will they double-team him immediately, or will they wait to see just how NFL-ready the first receiver taken in the 2024 draft is?

Regardless of that decision, it’s silly to think that an offensive line that is better built for running the ball, and a running back as physical and effective as James Conner, will take a backseat. It’s also important to look around the field. The most effective offense will be one in which Murray spreads the ball around.

He has the options to do so. McBride is emerging as an elite pass-catching tight end. Dortch is a difficult one-on-one matchup in the slot. Wilson could be a sleeper fantasy pick if he can finally stay healthy because Murray has targeted him often in the past. And we have yet to see what Benson can offer as Conner’s heir apparent, but he looked the part in preseason.

Harrison will get his targets and touches, but Murray won’t force the issue. When it’s right, the Cardinals offense will be a balanced and diverse offense.

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5. The Cardinals are too cheap and unstable to become a successful franchise (just ask three agents who surely have no agenda).

If you want to take aim at a practice facility that has stood since 1990, have at it. The facility underwent renovations in 2015, and then more recently when the team added a daycare and small family room, stopped charging players for dinner (😳), and upgraded the weight room equipment and floor. Those improvements were not enough to raise the team’s overall facilities grade in the eyes of players, who gave the locker room an F and ownership an F in an NFLPA survey of all 32 teams. Players were also unimpressed with the food, cafeteria and treatment of families. 

We have read various reports that Michael Bidwill has ceded more control of the day-to-day decisions to his GM and coach amid recent criticism, but there’s no way of really knowing that without being in the building. What is clear is how much the players believe in the current GM and coach, which was not the case with the previous duo. It’s early so we will see how well Ossenfort and Jonathan Gannon can sustain their early momentum, but there is a noticeable positivity emanating from the room. 

It has to be said, however, that the recent Athletic piece that put the Cardinals in a four-way tie for third most unstable franchise was outright ridiculous. First, that was according to three player agents; not even close to a large enough sample to render any meaningful judgments. Second, we don’t know who those agents are or what their agendas might be. Did one have a particularly acrimonious contract negotiation that led them to throw the Cardinals under the bus in this survey? 

Finally, there was that agent quote that The Athletic chose: “The Kyler Murray extension is why they are stuck. Why give Kyler that extension and quickly fire the head coach who wanted him and the GM who drafted him? You can’t fire the QB.”  There is so much wrong with that quote. First, the Cardinals have tons of cap space — more than $25 million per overthecap.com. They are not stuck.

Second, any agent who cites the dismissal of Keim and Kliff Kingsbury as reason for instability is an agent wholly unaware of what is happening with this franchise. Keim hamstrung this franchise with years of poor drafts, and Kingsbury hamstrung the offense with a poorly crafted system. There may be reasons to criticize the Cardinals, but this particular agent missed them all. The Cardinals may finally have the football operations people in place to put their dismal history behind them.

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Top photo of GM Monti Ossenfort via Getty Images

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