The Cardinals are the NFL’s most-improved team

The Cardinals are the NFL’s most-improved team

it was only a couple years ago that the Arizona Cardinals could uh I would say fairly be considered a complete and utter dumpster fire uh it was not a good situation they were not a good team they were thin they had missed on a lot of high draft picks they for whatever reason just kept taking linebackers in the first round over and over and over again Steve a lot was wrong right but ever since Monty’s come to town ganon’s come to town they put together two off Seasons two really good off seasons in a row dare I say the Arizona Cardinals are sneaky I think they’re sneaky good I’m G to I’m going to add the extra adjective uh I think they have a chance to surprise and it’s largely because of the work of their GM and their new coach we’ll talk about both throughout this process but yeah I don’t I think the days of being able to write them off just because they’re the Cardinals are gone that’s the thing I think people weren’t really paying attention to them because when the Cardinals are bad like there are some teams in the NFL were like if you’re bad America’s still going to watch you play because like it’s objectively funny like when the Jets are bad like they’re entertaining bad when the Cardinals are bad nobody pays attention so everybody just kind of stopped watching Cardinal games I mean we didn’t we get paid to but the fact that nobody was really paying attention to this cardinal kind of stealth rebuild over the last couple years means that they might surprise a lot of people not going to surprise us but there are a lot of dudes here a lot more than there were a couple of years ago to your point and enough I think to make them competitive even in a very competitive division are they going to win it we’ll save that analysis for the end but if they win the division somebody in Vegas is making a lot of money but but but but they’re on their way the trajectory you can see that from here which a couple of years ago mm it was a bridge too far well we have a lot to go over today again talking about another very good offseason for the Arizona Cardinals positioning themselves uh to be a sneaky fun sneaky good sneaky solid just sneaky team in general uh as you can tell it’s sunset here in Downtown LA but a new sun is rising in Phoenix and that was perfect wow I’m proud of that one that is so Pro I don’t I I feel like I should scoop my chair over farther this way that’s Jay roll the [Music] intro yeah welcome back to the boot Lake football podcast I’m Brett that’s EJ talking Arizona Cardinals today uh and I’m I’m going to try to be delicate about this but you know me I’m not very good at at that they weren’t good in 2023 they were a four- win team last year but that was also kind of the plan was kind of expected in fact it was very expected we knew that was what was going to happen the the roster just wasn’t there yet of course you got a A rookie head coach you got a quarterback coming off a torn I think it was ACL right um so we knew that they weren’t going to be good and they weren’t good What mattered was what happened after right how did they take the assets that they had uh to parlay that into being a solid roster and you know kind of doing this active rebuild thing that’s the part that they really really nailed again for the second straight year uh so we will spend a little bit of time on 2023 today not too much time because uh I would say January through May mattered a lot more than August through December think of it as a full Sprint through last season and we will be sprinting because we know that’s not the point and I think the Cardinals and Cardinals fans knew that wasn’t the point to again this was not like we went into last season when we were talking about them over the summer preview series and oh the Cardinals are going to be a new Juggernaut there was a lot of development to do there were some things that happened last season that I think were to your point sneaky good there were some flashes from new coaches and things that said okay if they get better groceries they might bake a really good meal here but last year was not that dinner uh 4 and 13 overall fourth in the division ision two and six at home two and seven on the road consistent if nothing else Cardinal fans okay and two and three way yeah you got two two and two oh anyways Effectiveness summary is a combination of a couple of stats the first one is called quarterback support I came up with it my buddy arjent Menan who now works for the Jets in an analytics capacity and QBs is five statistics three offensive one defensive and one special team and you can think of it as a rating for how a team sets the table for its quarterback to play how much support do they give him to succeed zero is the worst team in the league 100 is the best team in the league the Cardinals were a 16.1 on that scale and that ranked them 27th out of 32 teams again not unexpected in terms of that ranking the other score is power score we introduced you to that score last year during this series and it is simply six of a team team ranks in rushing offense passing offense rushing defense passing defense points scored and points allowed we simply assign their NFL rank where did they finish 10th 15th 20th add them all up and divide by six lower is better because you’d like to be first in everything but nobody is so the Cardinals rushing offense this is the Highlight Revel in this one they were seventh they were actually really good at running the ball they were great at running the ball and we’ll talk a little bit about their offensive coordinator Drew PSIG and some of those things that we saw early in the season that were I I still think people probably weren’t paying attention even in the beginning cuz again expectations were really low but I remember texting you in like late September going Drew Ping’s doing some fun stuff with the ground game might not matter but it’s pretty interesting making chicken salad out of chicken [ __ ] indeed he did a fine job of it passing offense on the other hand again with your starting quarterback out it’s never going to be great 26th Rush defense 27th not great but not necessary to be a good team we’ll talk about that later pass defense though just barely avoided the bottom spot 31st there’s reasons for that that’s that is a nail in the coffin though in the modern NFL if you cannot defend against the pass you are not going to win a lot of football games points scored 24th points allowed 31st same as the ranking against the pass not bouncing off the bottom but darn close to it and that really tells the story if we add all those up and average them out their power score is 24.3 that put them 29th overall they performed just slightly worse than their quarterback support rating says they might have I think it’s splitting hairs they were in the bottom 20s either way the numbers pretty much match up with the result we saw on the field I’m sort of fine with both of these rankings again in the fact that it led to this off season it was a talent deficiency more than anything I mean we saw them play hard like those guys played their ass off yeah they did not give up it was just they didn’t have the dudes you know they the entire roster was left in a very very very poor State arguably the worst state in the NFL at least bottom four in the NFL after the prior regime so uh they just they just didn’t have the Manpower let alone not having your starting quarterback for half the year they didn’t get Kyler back till week 10 so there was not really a whole lot that coaches could do about it other than just try to get guys to play hard and buy into the system they did that part they were Plucky you know they had some games where they just kind of let him get away cuz again it’s when you have a rookie head coach he’s completely outgun talent wise even against the New York Giants like yeah you’re going to lose games but uh I just I respected that his guys never gave up they clearly believe in him as a coach they believed in this coaching staff they believe in RIS they believe in ping that was kind of what mattered right in 2023 was just building the culture uh you know getting guys to buy in similar I’m not saying they’re going to be but similar to how the lions were a few years ago were like they were awful the roster was terrible they they had to string together a few good drafts and a few good free agency periods but it was just about getting guys to buy into the culture and in in a lot of ways I think Ganon had a rookie year similar to Dan Campbell I think they have a different presence to them but uh how hard they’re got guys played in each of their first two seasons I thought was pretty similar and the plan wasn’t bad right I think Ganon impressed me in his first year as a head coach that he had a plan and it was solid they couldn’t couldn’t necessarily cash the check with the talent they had on the team but the plan the idea the way he wanted to attack seemed really solid and it was like well you just need some better athletes to make that happen and folks knew that but despite that people didn’t you know hang up the white flag and basically walk out at midseason they played hard they ran the ball hard uh there was a lot of effort I think there was a lot of understanding like you said Bayan and again the scheme was interesting it kind of fun on the offensive side I think again the pass game needs work but that’s more of a talent thing the Run game was downright fun even with the guys they had so I think there were a lot of sort of signs if you were picking through the rubble that there was something here and it was worthwhile and it was worth building uh before I get into those scheme Tendencies by the way and and you know kind of some of the magic that these assistant coaches worked last year uh I do want to thank Underdog fantasy for making this show possible in the first place uh they’ve done a lot for us uh as a as a company as a show uh including helping to fund this entire series I’m not sure how many of you guys play pickham or you know play baseball fantasy but if you’re curious about it you want to check it out of course beste ball summer is going on right now there’s millions and millions and millions of dollars in prizes so if you want to get in on that uh do some beste ball drafts you know maybe have your friends hop in uh maybe prepare for your home League by doing beste ball drafts because those are probably the best way uh to get an accurate mock draft uh and not just drafting against a bunch of CPUs on auto pick so I use it for that reason personally uh but I also do season long pick thems and there is a season long pick them already live for the Arizona Cardinals and it is one Marvin Harrison Jr he is at hold on I have the number I have the number he is at 72 receiving touchdowns or 1,75 receiving yards for the season higher or lower uh they dropped that one basically the week after the draft as Chum in the water and you jumped on that immediately while you were still down here in La uh and and could play it I am literally looking at my entries and it is the first one from after the first day of the draft by the way if you didn’t know this uh Marvin Harrison Jr is already as wide receiver 9 uh so if you thought you were getting a discount on him you’re wrong uh at least in fantasy you’re not getting a discount on him we will go over a couple players that you will get discounts on or semi sort of kind of discounts on in this Cardinal episode a little bit later but uh if you want to go check out Underdog fantasy if you want to draft Marvin in beste ball if you want to do a season long pick him you want to do anything could be baseball golf anything like that uh check it out at the QR code on the screen or at the link in the description below promo code bootleg will get you up to $250 in bonus cash as well as a pick them special in the lobby uh thank you once again to Underdog fantasy for sponsoring Today’s Show and with that let’s talk a little bit more about Marvin but not in a fantasy sense but in a practical sense because we need to talk a little bit about scheme like why did they prioritize the Marvin pick Beyond just Marvin Harrison Jr like why take him over Joe Al why take him over Malik neighbors why take him over romad dun there was legitimate debate among a lot of people like is it worth them even taking anybody there or trading down again like they’ve done in the past we know Monty likes to wheel and deal for me while I was kind of going through the exercise of getting ready for this show you know pulling a bunch of data about this offense it’s data that I kind of wish I pulled back in March because if I went into the draft knowing some of this stuff I would have been like oh yeah like it’s Marvin unless they trade down the big really a debate right yeah um so here’s some stats that I pulled about this pulled about this offense and it kind of explains um stylistically how they play and keep in mind this is all from week 10 onward because I thought it was more fair to use the Kyler sample sample size than the entire season so this is just the Kyler Murray Le Drew petting Le card offense yeah we established that they’re really good uh in the ground game but a big reason why they were really good in the ground game is they had a very diverse ground game they lined up under Center more like like even with Kyler I know shocker they lined up more under center with him than he had under the previous regime keep in mind uh they were in the shotgun in I think 83% of the time uh the season before which was most in the NFL they dropped it down an entire 10% to 73 % so again they were still a pretty shotgun heavy offense overall but like that’s that’s significant like they went from first to nth by Cardinal standards by what we’re used to seeing with Kyler Murray as the quarterback that’s a that’s a pretty heavy commitment to being under Center and their run game percentages as a result were pretty varied like they didn’t call anything more than 20% of the time meaning outside Zone versus inside Zone versus Power vers counter versus pin and pole uh everything was fairly even like they weren’t top 10 in anything other than counter and pull lead but that’s just because that was all they ran when they were in the gun but as far as total run percentages including under Center and the shotgun nothing was more than 20% they actually called outside Zone they actually called Power they actually called a little bit of man so that kind of helped their run game be more more effective at punching above its weight than maybe it should have been again if you’re just looking at the roster if you’re looking at the talent Avail available last year like you wouldn’t have expected them to be the seventh best Run game by EPA per play in the NFL but when you have a coordinator like pet sing that is just throwing everything that he’s got at defenses whether it when it comes to formations Personnel groupings under Center in the gun in the pistol like they were just trying to keep people guessing and using not to deception but I don’t know whatever a good synonym for deception is to keep people off balance it worked in that case it’s variation he’s willing to call anything from just about anywhere on any given week and that makes anybody in the NFL very difficult to prepare for if you can’t go into down and distant tendency and say look like 85% of the time we’re going to see this from them we know we talk about teams like this all the time you know what we’re running we know what we’re running we’re just going to try and run it better than you that wasn’t the Cardinals Run game the Cardinals Run game was Drew pet ring into his bag and pulling out a run play and going yeah we’ll run that then throwing it back in there and shaking it up again and going might be the same thing might be something completely different I don’t know you don’t know how can you defend it and a lot of Defenders going dude they’re running everything and at every place of the field with all Personnel like you said out of all formations that was the thing that really impressed me even in the early season even though these numbers are from later in the season was you saw a lot of stuff usually new coaching staff little bit more of a simple install like within the first five weeks you saw an example of just about every kind of run concept usually multiple times from different formations and it was like wow they kind of had to yeah but it worked and they again they coached their asses off last year they’re busy they were busy but going back to the Marvin part of this the reason why Marvin is kind of the key to everything um the the particular stat that I was looking at was motion percentage you know I I had went into again studying for this episode thinking their lack of motion under Cliff was a cliff thing I think it might actually be a Kyler thing because they were still Last In Motion usage again from week 10 onward when Kyler was on the field they were still last went petting I kind of feel like whoever K or whoever is calling the offense for Kyler from year to year across regimes I kind of feel like their lack of of even trying to use motion at all has been more uh more in an effort to keep Kyler comfortable because I don’t think Kyler likes it very much and some quarterbacks are like that some quarterbacks like having a static picture right so that if safeties are moving it’s because it’s what the defense is doing as in as in what the defense is calling rather than as a reaction um because that that can almost be a way for Kyler to see the field a little bit better if if the rotation isn’t caused by motion then he means that they’re rotating into something else and he can just kind of identify that PostNet picture um again static versus motion again it just kind of helps some quarterbacks see it better um and some quarterbacks like having motion because if they know that they’re going to get a certain rotation based on motion it’s more of a pre- snap versus a post Snap mentality I know we’re getting into the weeds here about how quarterbacks process things but Kyler just seems to be one of those guys who likes having static pictures so that if if DBS are moving and if linebackers are moving it’s for a reason and he could just immediately identify that reason and make a decision a lot of air raid quarterbacks are like that Aaron roders uh famously was like that for a long time um you know at least in the Green Bay years he was like I don’t like people moving around I just kind of want to do my thing right um so I kind of feel like that’s not a petting thing that’s a Kyler thing which fine if that’s a preference okay whatever but also when you factor in they don’t use a lot of bunches they don’t use a lot of stacks they were 19th in terms of bunch looks that means that receivers are spread out they’re not on the move they you’re not using motions and stacks to make DBS back off so every one of your receivers has to stand up there and box every play like you were going against press Corners you were out there surviving every play they didn’t really have guys that could do that they had Greg dorch and I love Greg dorge uh you know trying to basically carry this offense uh being The Little Engine That Could out there but like they didn’t have a true dominant number one ex receiver like what DeAndre was for a time there right Michael Wilson is like we like Michael Wilson but he’s not that he’s never going to be that he’s more of a complimentary piece Hollywood was never that he was never going to be that uh rondale was definitely never going to be that but in the absence of having DeAndre Hopkins like they didn’t have anybody who Okay line up and go beat that dude we need to get bailed out of this hole it’s third and seven go make a [ __ ] play like they didn’t have that and so when looking at these numbers I was like okay they’re not trying to do anything other than set up these one-on ones but they don’t have anybody who can win win a one-on-one yeah Marvin makes sense like joal would have been great for them Malik probably would have been really good for them too and I mean Rome’s Rome he’s going to be good anywhere but as far as who is the player in this class in the context of this offensive philosophy that made the most sense for what they didn’t have yeah it’s probably Marvin they needed an alpha winner they needed to round out their room to make like you said many things or even all things that they do work it’s like a key or an unlock and they had a lot of complimentary guys and I think we even said this in the episode last year when we were talking about the Cardinals we’re like they have a lot of the same guy they have a lot of overlap in terms of roles you could say that dorch rondale could do a lot of the same things and we liked Wilson as an ad but he’s I think a classic number two and that is not a backhanded compliment I like him a lot and I think he’s going to be great in that role with Marvin pulling most of the coverage I think Wilson can pay that off but without that guy he becomes the default or deao number one and we’ve seen that over and over again in NFL history when that guy who’s not quite the guy sort of gets elevated and pushed into that role and the expectations there and they’re like well go win all by yourself with no help against press when people know you’re coming they don’t they just don’t quite have that level of juice or they’re not going to do it consistently enough that you can keep the offense moving things stall out and you get back to that need for a dominant Alpha that can win who is already very polished I mean stop me if this sounds exactly like Marvin harison Jr but you know can win all over the field at all depths speed size hands all the presc scouting reports that we gave you before the draft they needed to round out their room with that piece of skill set it’s going to make all the other receivers they have better it’s not overlap I mean not that many people would overlap with mhj anyways but he fills that role like very clearly by himself puts Wilson in the right spot puts dorch in the right spot and allows them to do a lot of things and look when everything breaks down yeah Marvin’s down there somewhere go for it you’ve got a good chance of converting and even if he’s not open it’s probably because he’s getting d doubled because you’re you’re going to have to like he was the most doubled receiver in college football by a wide margin and still won on a lot of those by the way go to the Matt Haron episode that we did before the draft and he’ll he’ll break down the numbers for you like it was staggering uh how much true double coverage Marvin got in college and it just kind of didn’t matter so if he’s not open it’s because NFL teams are also double teaming him and you know one of one of my favorite defensive coach sayings is double teams are expensive yes like if you’re committing a true double team to somebody everybody else is out there swimming in Deep Water by themselves like you don’t have the resources to provide the help within a coverage structure that that all of your other guys are used to getting right so say for example in quarters and Cardinal fans should be familiar with quarters because they literally ran it more than anybody else last year on defense like Ganon loves it um how it’s typically structured is if you’re playing quarters against a 3X one your backside Corners by themselves that’s that’s in man coverage right uh Nick sa calls it Meg means man everywhere he goes and then you are pushing five over three or at worst 5 over four uh to the other side of the field so that we have numbers typically it’s going to be 5 over3 that means that everybody on the field side has help they can basically play one leverage and not have to worry uh about trying to play guys head up in space they can just play their leverage because they’re going to have a safety inside they’re going to have a linebacker inside they don’t have to worry they can chill and there’s still ways to kind of manipulate those right but it’s hard it’s really hard double team and chill double team and chill like that’s kind of what it is that’s why the Cardinals ran it so damn much they didn’t have the corners to play man they were literally last in the NFL in playing cover one last last year defensively like they didn’t have the dudes they did it like 8% of the time they’re like [ __ ] that we’re not we’re not playing man yeah that was a necessity that was a necessity and now again part of the reason why their past defense wasn’t great is they still didn’t have that good Corner backside that they could leave oneon-one without getting destroyed um you know we’ll see when we talk about the the draft section if maybe they got one um but that that is what Marvin does he changes that equation because if you if you can’t win that backside one-on-one like teams used to not be able to win that backside oneon-one against the Andre Hopkins now you got to call new stuff now you got to play quarter quarter half now you’re playing again a flat corner and a deep half safety to his side and you’re playing quarters to the other side except oh God what if they go three verts on that side do we have a linebacker running for oh [ __ ] it’s a touchdown like mathematically there are problems if you are forced into running that so get a guy like Marvin who can force teams into running that and it just creates opportunities for everybody else I think Marvin more than anything else this is going to sound like a a huge waste of a pick he’s an unlock for the rest of the team more so than he is going to go out there and be like a a crazy hyper productive player as a rookie like he will be productive but it’s what he provides to everybody else that matters the most yeah I I do think he is a key he is an unlock we talked about that earlier that is going to open up they have other good players on offense and again it’s going to make those good players all better it’s a Cascade all the way down Trey McBride’s going to get more opportunities because Marvin’s there Michael Wilson’s going to get more of the right opportunities that he’s suited to win on same for George like it’s it’s all of those things and Marvin can run a little bit his nickname’s Maserati more than a little bit oh by the by the way Maserati marf not the best Marvin nickname not the best Marvin nickname Aston Marvin it was right there I know it was right there yeah left it on the table folks it’s so better so when Mr fast car Marvin runs down the field Toyota hux Marvin uh maybe a little bit faster than that it’s going to open up space for James Conor in the Run game for pet sings Run game because now safeties aren’t able to just crash right yeah it’s going to help Trey Benson it’s going to help Trey McBride it’s going to help all the trees if your name’s Trey and you live in Arizona you’re going to get helped by Marvin Harrison Jr yeah this season’s going to be good for you uh by the way speaking of a lot of the coaches that we brought up by name uh as well as the GM that we brought up by name probably time that we actually talk about the power structure uh that’s been in charge of this this active rebuild um they’ve done a phenomenal job so far at least considering the resources they had available to them Monty good God God he’s talk about virtuoso performances and back-to-back years isn’t he just a breath of fresh air for Arizona I mean just I don’t want to like talk too much [ __ ] but considering what used to be there to what’s there now like Monty Take a Bow Man Monty’s performance has been so different and breath of fresh air is perfect because it is a sweeping change from what was before and we’d grown tired of I know Arizona cardal fans are like you grown tired of yes we understand the previous regime didn’t work and it was sort of endless promise of hope and it didn’t work really especially because of all the Personnel decisions Monty comes in and in his first two years you said he likes to wheel and deal he absolutely does he’s always looking for an opportunity he is not completely wedded to his guy you know this is my guy I’m going to trade up to he’ll trade up to get him if he thinks he needs to but he’s also as equal equally willing to trade down get picks amass he knows the roster he inherited a couple years ago was in terrible shape he’s going to leverage whichever opportunity is going to give him the greatest impact over the wide range because this is not a one player this is not a five player away roster it certainly wasn’t it’s getting closer it it’s darn near that now which in two years yep the fact that that at this point considering where they were two years ago we can look at this roster and be like yeah they’re like four guys away and it’s because of that attitude it’s because of that approach that flexibility hey I’ll go up because I think the guy’s really worth it hey I’ll go down and down again and down again which is what he did last year in the draft and that flexibility he is a Wheeler Dealer he is as active as it gets and he needed to be because there was so much work to do but he didn’t come in with I would say a rigid approach he came in with one of of the most flexible approaches in the NFL I think it makes him one of the most fun GMS to watch on draft day because you just never know you’re like I don’t know he could go up I’m sure he’s got a guy in mind but you know move him off his spot give him enough picks he’ll go down it’s fascinating to watch him work and then this year was stick and pick there was a lot of speculation because of that that they might again try and leverage that high pick for multiple other picks nope we got a guy in mind we like the talent so that multiplicity of approaches is a little bit like what they did in the Run game it’s a it’s a very sort of equal reflection in terms of the front office so Monty I’ve been incredibly impressed if you can’t tell with his work during the first couple of years Jonathan Ganon also impressed me um I really thought that chane Sten was the guy when styen and Ganon both came out both got head coaching opportunities I thought oh sten’s the one I’m going to be sten’s the one I’m going to favor or be more impressed by and very impressed by Shane Sten but also it was more of a both situation it wasn’t like oh yep I like Sten like I thought H ganon’s kind of struggling Ganon didn’t struggle because he couldn’t coach Ganon struggled because he had a Personnel shortage that Monty was busy addressing but you know there just weren’t enough guys in the barn to get it done I was impressed with Ganon for all the reasons we talk about at the top of the podcast underneath that we’ve already said Drew pig’s name several times the offensive coordinator came out with a bang again came out of the blocks firing um was very active I think that’s a Hallmark of this whole coaching staff is they’re going to try stuff yeah they’re going to try lots of stuff they’re not going to stop working they’re not going to stop innovating and I really appreciate that energy and I think it does rub off within the building defensive coordinators Nick RIS we’ll talk a little bit more about his guys and really that corner situation he too came into a place where he didn’t have the guys to defend the pass he knew it he tried to throw a lot of stuff at the wall he also didn’t have the guys to rush the passer or stop the run he was like so what do you really want me to do this season coach because this is what I’m working with um special teams Jeff Rogers very experienced special teams coach has been in the league a long time and then interestingly enough the Cardinals also list their pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Drew Terell as a coordinator so he is a fourth coordinator if you want to say that that means they like him a lot yeah they put him on the top of the website it’s not an accident uh my my main comment about Ganon and RIS is look at the Eagles defense when they left like don’t don’t judge them as coaches based on the talent they were working with in Arizona sure judge them as coaches based on how Philly absolutely [ __ ] fell apart without them yeah especially those linebackers because RIS was a linebacker coach too e was had the worst linebacker group in the League last year and it wasn’t close no so yeah yeah he matters yeah think of them uh for why they got the job what that resume was what those credentials were and then think about that with a refilled Coffer from Monty doing all of his work uh on offense Ben steel the tight end Coach again if your guys have a major jump in production or efficiency or recognition or all three you’re going to make this list his work with Trey McBride should not be overlooked so McBride went from 29 catches 26 5 yards and one touchdown in his first season to 81 catches 825 yards and three touchdowns in his second season his first season under Ben steel yeah that’s going to get you a mention on the coaches section impressive work Trey McBride was my te1 the year he came out a lot of people were like after his first year oh that’s a Miss for you he’s and I was like he didn’t stop being a good player he’s just on a really bad team literally one year later he goes from 265 to 825 under 30 catches to over 80 catches like yeah he’s a good player folks and Ben steel found the unlock there autrey Denson is the running back coach James Conor and Amari de Marcado average five yards per carry in Denson’s first season with the Cardinals um Denson was a running back at Notre Dame himself was drafted by Tampa and spent time with five NFL teams and one CFL team so he knows of which he speaks on defense of special teams drick LeBlanc is the DL coach now this is more than what what he did do for what we talked about last year what he’s going to do so he’s going to be responsible for getting Darius Robinson up to speed as a starter uh again another high pick out in the desert uh when you are a coach and you are handed a high draft asset that is very necessary uh in the Cardinal case it certainly is they need some pass rush Dereck leblanc’s going to be in the spotlight to help Robinson get up to speed and Rob Rodriguez is the outside linebacker coach has an interesting group to work with this is a really mixed bag of old regime stuff that was misused I think these pieces were misused we can say that the Island of Misfit Toys out there that’s right and hasn’t been unlocked we’re talking about zavin Collins BJ o gelari Dennis Gard uh Victor D mcki uh Xavier Thomas came in the draft this year Tyreek Smith came over from Seattle Cameron Thomas is still there this is a bunch of down theboard bootle favorites in that mix like we liked a lot of those guys coming out we had high hopes for them even if were lower draft picks it’s going to be fascinating to see what Rodriguez can do with all those guys because there’s a lot of talent there and if he can mold those in and find those roles they’re good at because the old regime was not good at that they were very good at putting the right guy in the wrong spot so that he performed underperformed and that was a Hallmark of that regime like that happened consistently and it’s one of the reasons that the coverboard was so bare because they brought in very talented guys that we liked and then sort of misused them and miscast them moved them all around gave them a bunch of extra responsibilities and they never really developed so like you said Rodriguez inherits all these guys who don’t have great pedigrees necessarily some of them have been productive at other stops or overachieved in the case of guys like gardak he’s just got this weird mix I can’t wait to see what he does with it there are a bunch of guys on this team that that are just fun to watch again it’s a it was well not a bad team anymore it was a bad team but there some holdovers from that regime you know for the dozens of us that would watch Arizona Cardinal games every week we’re like there are dozens of us it’s pretty fun like James conter is pretty fun y you know dorch the human dorch the human D great great GIC love him Wilson I think was I don’t want to say a revelation but definitely showed enough flashes to be worthy of a starting spot be kept around and developed like yeah there were fits and starts of oh this could be interesting but yeah they just need more dudes they need to be able to pull that on both sides of the ball and and work together and there were just too many Canyons to overcome in the first season but I like where they’re going which by the way it’s a good segue to our Underdog top three segment because Greg dorch is literally one of our Underdog top three might he be featured he’s wide receiver 92 EJ which means he’s not even being drafted yeah and he’s probably gonna get the third most catches on the team behind Marvin and behind McBride and he’s going as wide receiver 92 I’m not saying you need to go out there and draft him as your wide receiver four folks but wide receiver 92 for Greg dorch I feel like I’m taking crazy pill like am I wrong like is he not a good player like I love Greg D how is he wide receiver 92 he’s not even being drafted what is Josh DS’s 80 P oh it honestly it might be higher I got to look it up but I bet it is but we’re talking about similar roles right we’re talking about a third wide receiver in an offense oh wait no I was thinking of Josh dos no Josh DS is definitely higher I was like I mean Josh dobs is probably going as like a 16th round I was like you only think it might be a little higher I was like no no no no yeah Downs is definitely I’m pretty sure it’s higher anyways we’re talking about similar roles right we’re talking about there are bigger uh receivers who are going to be the focal points of their offense and then third guy is there to be able to leverage those opportunities right that’s D’s role in this offense it’s DS’s role in Indianapolis it’s the same now talent-wise I I don’t think they’re all that dissimilar I really like downs but I also like dorge so if you have one you can’t sort of say I love this but I’m not wild about this they’re pretty close to the save in terms of skills and role and this is what we’re talking about with Marvin Harrison if you really believe that Marvin Harrison is going to be good as a rookie even as a focal point all these opportunities open up Greg dorch is going to get even more chances let me put it you this way this team willingly chose to have Desmond Ritter on their roster in in sending off Rond Del Moore for Desmond Ritter because they like dorch that much yeah like as far as the battle for who’s like the small Shifty you know number three option on the team like dorch won that battle he’s the guy like there so I if you really like Michael Wilson and you’re taking him ahead of a dorch like I get it you know if you think he’s going to somehow be the fourth maybe fifth but what’s Wilson’s ADP much higher in fact I’m curious I’m going look up very curious because again if Wilson’s ADP is in like I don’t know let’s say the 50s or the 60s like among among just receivers it probably it’s I I I I would be stunned if it’s below dorch right people like Michael Wilson a lot yeah not that I don’t and he’s going to get opportunities but if he’s in the 50s or 60s Greg dor shouldn’t be 30 points below that okay so Wilson is wide receiver 78 so not not that all right much farther ahead but also that means that everybody is drafting Marvin and Trey McBride and that’s and that’s it it like they’re not taking anybody else I was going to say 78th indicates to me it’s much lower than I thought it would be not much lower it is lower than I thought it would be by a fair amount and that means there isn’t faith in the Cardinals passing game because gestures at everything history offensive blind play just being unsure of whether or not you know ganet and PSIG are going to be able to make it work with what they’ve got so yeah they’re going with Talent proven production and then that’s it nope no more by the way Trey McBride is not uh on our Underdog top three I know people are probably looking at the list and saying like where’s Trey McBride uh he’s not there because he’s te3 and he’s well deserved by the way three but that’s not a value it’s not a value but it is a validation of what we thought about Trey McBride coming out of Colorado State I had him as te1 some people that year said you’re nuts like was that the doul year yeah I think I had doul W and I think had McBride some I I think I had McBride in my top four yeah I think he was fourth for you what other Titans came out that year I can’t even remember I was I was like no Trey McBride mostly because of his two-way play I mean we’ll talk about him in a a little bit but yeah he’s not in this section because no value at three yeah no he’s he’s awesome he does everything too Blocks he’s great after the catch he’s in the Red Zone great player great great player like he’s te3 in fantasy but he might by the end of this year be considered like te3 in real football like overall like is a you know him leaport we’ll see if the Ageless Travis Kelce does Kelsey thing again but like by the end of this year people might be looking at leaport Trey McBride and then either kle Kelsey or Andrews as like the three best tight ends in the league so boy they nailed that pick they needed to if you’re talking about somebody in the handful of top six at their position in the NFL and you know we just named six possible guys maybe there’s seven if you’re in that mix if you’re in the top six or seven not even the top 10 but solidly in the top six or seven with a chance to be fifth fourth third at the end of the year talking about a very very talented football player you’re talking about an elite football player and Elite and football players not labels that have gone together with a lot of cardinals in recent history so the other two that we have in the underdog top three are actually both of their running backs because I want to have a discussion about this uh James Conor is at rb27 and Trey Benson is at rb30 they are right next to each other I know truth be told I see justifications for both of them again this is a really good run game I think it’s going to keep being a really good run game ideally the pass game is going to be much improved to give both of these running backs more Red Zone opportunities we know they can both catch the ball Benson is especially deadly in the screen game I think there’s room for both of them to be really really productive I’m I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that they’re both going to beat this current ADP but often times when we’ve done this for other teams I’m like I don’t like the value of this guy but I definitely like the value of this one so if I had to choose and I’m trying to Moneyball this thing I’ll take I’ll take the second one right when it comes to these Arizona running backs I’m kind of good with either one this is the classic potential over production debate Benson is the potential Connor does nothing but produce when given the chance over and over and over again I am done betting against James Conor by the way because all he ever does is prove me wrong he just keeps outperforming what I think is possible one of the great stories in the NFL and just a completely self-made player who keeps grinding keeps producing again because he plays in the Arizona Market he is perpetually underrated I am going to give him benefit of the doubt he’s the experienced back in this offense he understands it he’s well liked by the coaches he’s going to get first opportunities however so we move to the potential part of this argument Trey Benson was my rb1 for a reason dude is wild explosive with the run with the pass he’s going to get his opportunities and when he does I think he’s going to pay him off he’s an extremely talented running back and man if he gets just a crack of daylight He Can Go the Distance on any play it’s going to be difficult if that occurs to not put him in the lineup but I think Conor is going to keep the door pretty firmly shut Bens will get his opportunities and relief for sure I don’t think that balance is going to be 50-50 though because man you give James Conor the ball he pays it off he is productive he is a Workhorse he shows no signs of slowing down I think he’s going to get sort of the right of first refusal in this offense Benson’s going to get those opportunity he’ pop some early ones there’s going to be there’s going to be cry for more equality and that’s a good problem for the coaching staff to have that would mean they hit on that pick as well did you realize that one of our mutual friends is James Connor’s former James Connor’s former coach I don’t think I did Nate dice really yeah no yeah Nate Ty was James Connor’s RB coach at Pittsburgh oh I did know that but I at that two Nate Ty mentions on the pot today just get a third chair it’s not that far away we could fly him out and be here in a couple hours that’s probably why he watches them so damn much cuz he loves James Conor he should no that’s yeah that’s awesome I yes that was stuffed somewhere in the dusty recesses of my brain and it’s more recognition than knowing when you say it I’m like yeah but I couldn’t if it was a test folks I would have failed I wouldn’t have put that down it also tells you how long James Conor has been in the league that Nate Ty was his coach in college because Nate Nate coached a while ago he’s been in the media for a while yep uh I miss you Nate I don’t know if you’re ever going to watch this but uh next time you’re in La come say hi yeah we’ll send it to with all that being said though uh moving on to the meat of the offseason discussion you know all this roster turnover that we’ve been talking about uh why don’t we go over some of the actual names that they got rid of to make room and then we’ll go over the names they brought in yeah these names might not be notable to folks outside of Arizona of them Josh Woods the linebacker he’s there because he played more than 50% of the snaps you got to replace that again they have a plan they got a lot of players they could rotate through that DJ Humphrey is the left tackle 81% of the snaps uh he is not back Maris Brown of course heads to the Chiefs in big news rondale Moore as we mentioned is now a falcon and Ley fotu is a jet now only 23% of the snaps for Ley fotu but again interior defensive lineman with a very specific purpose like eotu is a human tree stump and you got to have those run Stoppers those you know Gap and a half to two Gap players who can be in there and do one thing which is make sure you’re not going to get runs through the middle gaps so Ley Fu moves on as well when it comes to the Hollywood Brown discussion you know there’s a lot of debate about like was it a wise decision to not just pair him with Marvin you know pair him with dorch pair him with with mcbry like really and just having weapons Galore like why not make more effort to to just combine everything like why why send him to Kansas City or not send him to Kansas City but let him go to Kansas City right um for me it comes down to what we talked about earlier which is the nature of this offense how static it is how how little it protects receivers and there are some offenses that protect receivers they use a lot of motion they use a lot of stacks they use a lot of bunches like look at Miami and Miami has great receivers by the way like Tyreek wad like they got they got speed but they protect those guys they keep them on the move they they they manufacture space so they can work this offense doesn’t do that and I’m not saying that’s a good or a bad thing it’s just acknowledging like stylistically that’s what they are and there’s advantages to it there’s disadvantages to it um they opt to create space through spreading things out uh and and kind of allowing their guys to take advantage of one-on ones if they can win them they didn’t have anybody to win them now they do but that that was their philosophy of like we we don’t need to protect guys we need we need to get guys that don’t have to be protected right and Hollywood doesn’t really fit that bill to me uh Marvin fits it Trey fits it dorch has a slot receiver where you know he’s going to be off of scrimmage and and kind of getting a little bit of space he fits it but I think if you’re looking at what they’re receiving or their rather their group of pass catchers is now across the board including Trey McBride I think Hollywood clearly was not a philosophical fit I think they wanted size they wanted physicality they wanted people who you know when they get punched in the face at the line of scrimmage they don’t fall down uh that wasn’t Hollywood so I get it I or I should say I get the Cardinals fans that are like yeah but deep ball go Burr um but at the same time if you’re just looking at how how petting is organizing this offense or rather what he believes in philosophically it just didn’t make sense I got a much simpler explanation what’s that Maris Brown $7 million Greg dorch $1.1 million I mean I’ve never known Cardinals ownership to uh to not factor in money how about that is that diplomatic enough and honestly if you had kept Hollywood Brown you would most likely be playing him inside for the reasons that we talked about you’d be playing Wilson and mhj outside and Hollywood would be your slot yeah a $7 million slot who still needs some protection right can’t rotate him in terms of oh put him to the outside he’s not as effective against the type of coverages you’re talking about so there’s still some limitations and he’s literally seven times as expensive as the guy they retained yeah from a financial perspective the Cardinals are usually going to go with the cheaper option especially if the production on paper could be comparable right like they Cardinal fans know this I’m not I’m not offending I’m not offending them at all right but like they know if they have an opportunity to not spend money they’re going to not spend money sure they’re kind of known for that but at least in this instance it makes a lot of sense from a team building perspective too yeah uh all right in terms of who they actually did spend money on because it does happen sometimes uh LJ Collier got retained at 1.3 million uh let’s see Greg dorch again like we said got retained at 1 point1 125 so yeah one and one quarter million see I can do math good sometimes oo math good math go bur uh Aaron Brewer The Long Snapper is bad back I just wanted to mention it cuz he’s a Long Snapper and we never talk about long Snappers ever uh let’s see cter o’ Donnell is back as a backup guard Elijah Wilkinson is also back as a backup guard uh Jesse Lada I really did like him coming out of Penn State um I’m I’m still kind of waiting for him to pop like I thought he could again trying to be nice about it here uh he was great in college but he’s back again at a little under a million uh Keith ishmail uh is back as well just retaining all of their very very cheap emphasis on the word cheap offensive line depth uh Chris Barnes linebacker also coming back uh I think the most expensive in-house retention they had was $2 million so again that that was the goal here of uh let’s not let’s not spend too much that we don’t have to clean housee keep the players we like for you know reasonable prices build through the draft trades free agency if we need to but in general this was not not a spending spree team I’m actually curious let’s see what’s their cap space right now yeah so they have 35 million still available in cap space this year so it’s not like they didn’t have room to sign people they just didn’t want to uh and they are second in available at least projected available cap space next year at $88 million so if they actually decide to spend money uh next year they could and if this base team is successful in its second year and show shows progress in the win column in the offensive development column and you’ve got 88 million next year now we’re cooking it becomes a very desirable destination for free agents in terms of third party editions uh they did spend a little bit on Shawn Murphy bunting at about 8 and a half million Evan Brown also brought him at about 2.4 million balal Nichols still kicking around brought him in at 7 million Z Jones to round out that receiving cord about 2.3 Jonah Williams like I mentioned at the top of the Pod they brought him to be their starting right tackle at 15 million that one’s a little uh little touchy subject for you if they are going to spend money if they are going to spend 15 million to be precise yeah Jonah Williams like we’re going up a register for this one Jonah Williams really I’m that’s what we’re doing I’m going to imagine that they either have a coaching relationship or some really good beta on Williams that we’re not aware of because let’s say players of a similar caliber for the most part aren’t getting that kind of money no they’re getting like seven eight sometimes maybe 10 in the current market they would crack 10 right 15 though a third more yeah I again it’s not like they’re out of money like they still have 35 million but yeah out of all the guys to spend on that was that was the interesting one was a chin scratching choice for sure uh Justin and by the way I know Cardinal fans are be like yeah but why look at the pressure allowed percentages like he was consistently getting annihilated in Cincinnati like they Cincinatti threw a lot of resources at replacing him uh and moving him around moving around kinds of stuff and not much worked which is why he’s no longer there and that’s why Mar’s Mims is so again I yeah I didn’t like that signing at all uh at least at that price point Justin Jones I did like this one at about 10 million so there were some signings that I liked uh that I again the Murphy bunding signing I thought was really good value the Justin Jones sign signing I like Z Jones to be your wide receiver four or five uh I like that one a lot too um the Evan Brown deal I thought was very economical like there there’s some good stuff in here but saw that and I was like Monty ah you were doing so good if you’re going to trigger Brett sign Jonah Williams for a 15 million you want your quarterback to get hurt sign Jonah Williams anyway let’s talk about something happier let’s talk about where Monty really nailed it the draft again Monty stacked picks for this draft they have a ton of draft picks they bring in a lot of talent we’ve talked about how much they needed to do that starts right at the top with Marvin Harrison Jr and J for those of you that aren’t keeping up that’s that’s the shorthand for the rest of the season at pick four overall it was a stick in pick situation they identify him as a key to unlocking their offense Darius Robinson also their other first round pick at 27 big long strong defensive end out of Missouri who had a really good Senior Bowl um but has a lot of great tape in the SEC going against all these big long strong tackles of the future and had great success uccess so hopefully is going to bring them more run stopping ability and pass rush in the same package that’s their hope Max Melton the cornerback from ruter in the second round at 43 this was early for me because of some of Max Melton’s Effectiveness in college as an athlete he is off the charts I was at the end of the long jump or yeah broad jump at the combine watched him go I think it was 11 ft it was 114 I think actually it was crazy jumped right towards my face 11 ft he is a tremendous athlete twitched up uh makes some big impact plays or made some big impact plays in college but also gave up a bunch and his tackling problem a corner That Couldn’t tackle shocker yeah but his Miss tackle percentage was a quarter of his potential tackles all right well even by DB standards that’s kind of that’s a little high so second round it’s not that I don’t think he has potential or he can’t clean some of that stuff up picking him at 43 overall was early for me so they need help in the secondary but I wouldn’t have picked that guy that early Trey Benson running back from Florida State one of my favorites in the third round at 66 we talked about him earlier Isaiah Adams the guard out of Illinois well regarded oh only a few picks later again they had three third round picks so they get Isaiah Adams at 71 then they get tip Ryman his teammate from Illinois who we saw at the shrine bow uh at 82 so 43 66 71 82 and 90 they just went on a straight run here and it’s all picks well it’s not all picks but it’s a lot of picks that Monty stacked up and then and then drum roll please I think this is one of the biggest steals of the draft Elijah Jones the cornerback from Boston College at 90th overall now if you switch Melton I knew you were going to say this of course if we just pretend that the other thing happened then it’s great I feel better already Elijah Jones one of the Hidden gems as far as I’m concerned in this Defensive class overall not just cornerbacks extremely long physical fast smart player who was tremendous from a statistical perspective again playing against very high level competition love love love Elijah Jones dadrian Taylor demerson the safety also known as rabbit out of Texas Tech one of our favorites that we interviewed down at Shrine bow in the fourth round at 104 I thought they were lucky to get him that late I really thought he could have gone in the 80s I honestly I I I really did think that he had a shot to go around where Melton went and and Melton I thought that honestly for me just to defend Max Melton I thought that was okay at 43 I understand why some people thought it was early um but considering the tools lot of tools you just you don’t find tools like that often outside of the second round and I think that’s a pick where you look at your DB coach and you say all right Bud do your job fix up we brought you here to make that into a pro bowl Corner yep and he’s got tools man he’s great kid too so I I believe in it just because when you take a player that talented uh that is extremely coachable you you trust your coach to just make it happen uh you trust them to develop so I I get he signed off on it be clear this was not some like spring what’s in the box we got you a Max Melton I’m sure he had input and said no I’m I’m good with that let’s go and I’m sure he had input on rabbit too who again I thought very easily could have been you know taken somewhere around 50 to 60 look the secondary coaches in general are pretty happy after the draft you come out with Max Melton you get Elijah Jones drien Taylor deerson and Jaden Davis from Miami way down we’ll talk about him in a second but moving on Xavier Thomas The Edge from Clemson who we also saw at the shrine bow in the fifth round 138 only reason he lasted this long is injury history which is incredibly spotty if you go back three years ago I know it seems like a long time and watch early Xavier Thomas tap at Clemson you’re talking about a top 15 in the draft overall Talent like that level of explosion impact on the defensive pass rush like very very talented player who I hope stays healthy because boy he can get after it when he does Christian Jones the offensive tackle from Texas again a player lasted a lot longer than I thought fifth round 162 I thought he had a chance to go in that late sort of second bubble of tackles early third which would have been end of the second round in this draft top of the third round I thought by the end of the third round Christen Jones is probably going to be off the board last all the way down into the fifth Cardinals are the lucky recipients there Tason Palmer the wide receiver from UAB in the sixth round at 191 and then Jaden Davis who I mentioned earlier the cornerback from Miami the seventh round at 226 rounds it out that is a whole lot of talent and Monty I think just fully acknowledging look the hit rate is not going to be perfect I’m going to take a bunch of swings because I need a bunch of players and there is a lot of Talent on that drafted roster Beyond Marvin right what did we talk about their their main struggles were uh it was okay they don’t have guys to rush the passer fixed they don’t have guys to stop the run fixed at least partly fixed because we know that Darius is really good at stoping the Run uh and they don’t have DBS that they trust fixed fixed and fixed I mean they they took swings did they solve the problem is the question we always want to ask with these teams here are the problems we lay that out the top this is why last season didn’t go the way they wanted it to what did they do to fix that is it coaching is it free agency is it the draft is it all three there’s a lot of fixes on this list for the Cardinals and if you thought they were good at running the ball before wait until they start running behind Trey McBride and tip Ryman on the field at the same time like this team is going to live in 12 Personnel once they get the lead and they’re going to run and run and run and run and there’s not a damn thing you could do about it like this team is going to be so annoying to play against like just so [ __ ] irritating because they’re not going to go away you’re not going to blow them out like I think they have enough defensive Talent now where you’re not going to blow them out their offense is going to be good enough that they’re going to keep Pace pretty much no matter what you’re doing cuz they got weapons Galore and they got Kyler Murray and their protection other than is looking pretty good on paper they’re going to be a [ __ ] and a half to play against I’m not saying they’re going to go out there and win the division but if you think that Arizona is going to be an easy game on the schedule this year you’re wrong like there’s dudes here it’s rapidly changing and again to go paint that picture from two years ago and then fast forward to now where we are in the off season getting ready to March into the 2024 regular season it is a wholly different picture from the GM to coaching staff to the roster to the scheme like this is a this is as much change as you can have on a football team in a two-year period that’s probably a good segue to our ending summary where we answer two questions did this team get better did they get worse or if you add up all the additions and subtractions are they roughly the same if you couldn’t tell by everything we’ve said for the last hour plus this is a thumbs up for THS way up like massively up yeah might be one of the bigger thumbs up of this whole series in terms of teams that have improved since literally the start of this calendar year this is massive upgrade and we’ve said it in each section as we’ve gone down front office is better the coaching staff is better they learn some things the roster is clearly better in multiple ways they have things that they just didn’t have last year it’s not like they traded one for the other there’s a lot of teams in the series where it’s like well they lost this big talent but this is their plan to replace it so I guess that’s even there was no mhj on this team last year there was no Darius Robinson on this team last year like they’re there now plus the additions we talked about there’s no way to look at this Kyler’s going to be healthy presumably I mean certainly to start the year possibly for the full year that’s a massive upgrade in itself like this this team is better they even got miles Murphy as a udfa yes I forgot to bring up the udfa hall but that’s okay he was really the notable one and again it’s to get beef to the insided line kir Tonga we didn’t talk about him he’s on our free agency list that was the replace those guys are the potential replacements for luy F2 snap get in there and don’t move there for the five of you that were currently in the process of writing comments about how we forgot about the udfa hall we got you miles Murphy let’s go Bing done uh all right let’s talk about ceiling and floor again this is ceiling in winds and floor in winds uh it’s going to be a welcome change of pace for Cardinal fans because for me for the first time in a while my ceiling for the Arizona Cardinals is double digits I think they could win 10 games I really do now will they it’s a tough ask against a young team I get it there’s going to be struggles tough division tough div very tough division like their best case scenario is splitting three and three with all these other all these other great teams it’s probably not going to happen they’re probably going to go two and four but if everything breaks their way they stay they stay healthy Marvin is who we think he is Darius is who we think he is they run the ball well again they play better defense they just show they could cover literally anybody ever this team could win 10 games because there’s a lot of talent there my floor though is six because again Young Team all the young team problems that we typically see they’re they’re probably going to end up somewhere in the middle like around 8ish but I have a I have a fairly wide range off of that that they could hit just because of of let’s say the variance of Youth right sometimes it hits high sometimes it hits low you never really know which one you’re going to get yeah welcome to high school my floor is the same as yours at six wins I think there’s no way they win less than that given all the things that we’ve talked about my ceiling I struggled with I wanted to go to double digits I am enthusiastic about this team I couldn’t bring myself to do it I capped out at nine so nine is my ceiling [ __ ] six is my flp feel free I we tend to get very excited about things on paper and then we get a nice cold bath of water usually in the first month of the season oh dude I said the Carolina Panthers were going to win the South last year man I ate it hard I am trying trying to learn from my mistakes and I yeah had the had the pen over the paper quivering at 10 I went no be reasonable nine would be a lot better that’s a huge Improvement for this team overall I’m more positive about this franchise than I have been in a very long time they still have their problems they still have their warts but for the most part things are finally going right and it kind of feels like the adults are in charge and they’re doing things the right way they’re building they’re building the team the right way for starters um I just I couldn’t be more excited for Cardinals fans that have been through the ringer over the last a lot of years uh I think it’s been a while since they’ve been able to be this excited probably since like the prime Bruce arens era like a decade ago yeah but again that was a decade ago oh yeah what’s honest to goodness hope taste like Cardinals fans let us know in the comments there’s young Cardinal fans that don’t even remember the last time they had a watchable team no no so it it’s great man I I truly love to see franchises turn it around like this when they’re when they’re down on the dumps I think they’re well on their way to doing that so uh can’t wait to watch them this year for reasons other than just morbid curiosity like in past Seasons uh I think it’s going to be fun to watch them uh if you’re a Cardinals fan and you want to grab some Cardinals gear you could do so at our clothing partner homage by the way if you want to directly support your team while indirectly supporting the show they also carry bootleg gear as well EJ is wearing it right now uh anything you buy at homage using our link or our QR code we get a cut of it so it doesn’t even have to be our stuff doesn’t even have to be football stuff it can be anything and uh and we uh we get a cut of that so it’s a good way to indirectly support the show for all of you who do directly support the show through our patreon especially our executive producers uh that help make everything uh work around here uh literally keeping these light including us I mean we do have to buy coffee every day lots of it well it’s 9:15 at night we have one more episode to do so that coffee’s coming uh in use today um but again thank you to all of you who supported us for for so long on the patreon as well so we’ll be back here tomorrow with the Seahawks probably probably I’m trying to recall the draft order in my head to determine who the next team’s going to be I it’s way too late for that who are we recording at 10:00 tonight DJ I don’t know it’s probably Seattle the next one anyway we’ll see you uh with whatever we have tomorrow later [Music] [Music]

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Time Stamps
0:00 It’s Cardinals day
2:56 Reflecting on 2023
12:10 How the Cardinals’ scheme works
27:39 Front Office and Staff Breakdown
36:29 So who should you actually draft?
47:06 Free Agency Losses and Gains
56:40 The Cardinals rookie class
1:05:11 Summary and Season Predictions

Also while you’re here, shop for Bootleg gear as well as dozens of designs for officially licensed gear for all 32 NFL teams over at Homage! Any purchase made at this link will also directly support our show. https://t.co/Ts0VRVohnV

QBS Live stream to explain how it all works — https://www.youtube.com/live/7-rMee02K7Q?si=qnTpuUwCmljh8fzX

And one more thing! Follow E.J. and Brett at their respective twitter and instagram handles too:
Twitter: @BrettKollmann and @FootballEJ
Instagram: @brett_kollmann
The Film Room: http://youtube.com/c/brettkollmann

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