The Arizona Cardinals were one of the most exciting offenses in the NFL last season, but they took to the defensive side with their top assets in 2016…
What we saw from the Arizona Cardinals offensively last season is undoubtedly among the best in franchise history. But because of how good the Carolina Panthers were, the Cardinals’ excellence last season has gotten a little underrated, in my opinion.
Carson Palmer completely collapsed in the playoffs, there’s no denying it, but over the course of the whole season, this Arizona team was excellent in all three phases of the game, particularly offensively. They ranked 2nd in the league in scoring, 1st in total yards, 2nd in passing yards, and 8th in rushing yards.
Not bad, especially for a team that has had problems in recent years with offensive line play.
With that success offensively also came success defensively, where the Cardinals ranked 8th in points allowed, and 5th in yards allowed. They were stout against the run, and stingy against the pass, putting together one of the most complete seasons of any team in the league.
Along with Carolina, you wouldn’t be going out on any kind of limb to say the Cardinals were the most balanced team in the NFL last season, and it wasn’t really all that close.
The emergence of young players like John Brown and David Johnson coupled with the career revivals of players like Larry Fitzgerald and Chris Johnson propelled Arizona to the NFC title game, but it was a -7 turnover differential in two playoff games that proved to be their demise.
Arizona was +9 in the turnover margin during the regular season, a very solid number, but they know they have the talent to be capable of more. The secondary is filled with elite talent like Patrick Peterson, Tyrann Mathieu, and Deone Bucannon, so Arizona set out this offseason to invest in that side of the ball — to create more turnovers and get the ball into the offense’s hands as much as possible.
Let’s take a look at three key moves the Cardinals made this offseason, investing their top assets, to get this team over the hump and back into the Super Bowl…
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