PHNX Daily: It’s Finally Over, Cardinals Fans…

👋 GOOD MORNING – That’s it. We’ve made it through the entirety of the 2025-26 NFL season. Wasn’t that fun? Hey, at least last night’s Suns game had a positive outcome.

No, not really. The Arizona Cardinals put out a thoroughly depressing, frustrating, infuriating (whatever word you feel like using) season. But it’s over now. The draft pick is secured, and the future is wide open.

Let’s talk about it!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Cardinals Reach Historic Low

The Cardinals lost to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday by a score of 37-20. That much was expected.

There wasn’t much confidence in this Cardinals team to come away with a final-week win over a tough rival, even if a victory Sunday would have ironically hurt their draft position.

But Arizona now falls to a dismal 3-14. That is a worse record than year one of this rebuild (4-13), and, somehow, the most single-season losses in franchise history. For as bad as this team has been through its century-plus history, the Cardinals had never lost 14 games.

Until now.

It’s difficult to even put into words just how poorly this team played all year. They had talent, but couldn’t execute. They had leads, but couldn’t hold them. They had many, many chances to rewrite the narrative of this season — and it just continued to fall apart week by week.

It was every side of the ball, too. The offense couldn’t run the ball and struggled to score points later in the year. A defense that was supposed to be among the NFL’s most talented was among the NFL’s worst. Even the special teams procedures began to break down heavily as 2025 grew old.

But if you were among those hoping for a loss for draft purposes yesterday, well, I guess they didn’t manage to screw that part up. The Cardinals are officially picking third in the 2026 Draft, which is a bit better than expected, given how many other really bad teams there were in the NFL this year.

But there’s just so much question about the viability of this franchise moving forward. Many want head coach Jonathan Gannon and his entire staff fired. For the time being, he seems poised to return, but you never know.

What we do know is this season was beyond disappointing. It was truly a historic failure — one that seemed to just keep getting worse. It was very difficult for fans to watch, and many stopped doing so in the process.

The aftereffects of this season will be felt — inside the organization, within the locker room and in the fanbase itself. Trust is going to be very difficult to regain, especially if significant changes aren’t made this offseason.

I’m not here to tell you how to feel or act about this brutal season. The disappointment is certainly warranted and valid, though.

There are going to be a lot of tough conversations to be had following this disaster, and I’ll help break all that down as it comes. But for now, let’s take a look at some individual Cardinals accomplishments.

Cardinals Top Performances

WR Michael Wilson – Wilson’s 99-yard performance allowed him to reach the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career, despite the third-year wideout only having 52 yards through his first five games.

He might’ve had more in this game if not for some questionable penalties, but to finish with 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns this season is a massive accomplishment. In fact, he’s the first Cardinals wideout since DeAndre Hopkins in 2020 to reach the 1,000-yard mark.

TE Trey McBride – It was a quiet (by his standards) game, but McBride’s 65 yards allowed him to cement yet another record. His 1,239 yards on the season are the highest single-season total by a Cardinals TE, passing Jackie Smith’s previous record of 1,205.

OLB Josh Sweat – It’s truly a shame this defense has been so poor, because Sweat has been well worth his four-year, $76 million contract so far. With his sack yesterday, Sweat has surpassed his career-high in a single season, totaling 12 in 2025.

Quick Hits

Thunder-Struck: The Suns pulled off a massive win over the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, as Devin Booker launched a clutch three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left on the clock. Phoenix, with the 108-105 win, improves to 21-14. Booker finished with 24 points and nine assists, but it was Jordan Goodwin off the bench who led the scoring with an impressive 26 points.

What a win for the Suns.

A New Sheriff: ASU football has landed a new QB: Cutter Boley, who threw for 2,160 yards, 15 TDs and 12 interceptions for Kentucky this past season. With Sam Leavitt in the portal, this is big for the Sun Devils.

And the news comes at a good time, because Arizona State was unable to come out of the Sun Bowl with a win, falling 42-39 to Duke.

ASU men’s hoops, meanwhile, started off conference play with a 95-89 loss to Colorado, while Molly Miller’s squad suffered their first loss of the season — falling 71-62 to BYU on Saturday.

Rough Holiday: The Wildcats battled back late, but could not complete the comeback against SMU in the Holiday Bowl this weekend, losing 24-19 to finish 9-4 on the season. It was certainly a season that surpassed expectations, but the final game will sting a bit.

Arizona men’s hoops took care of business to open conference play, however, winning 97-78 over Utah on Saturday. The Wildcat women fell 80-49 to a No. 21-ranked Texas Tech squad, meanwhile.