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Of the more than 10,000 known rare diseases, only approximately 5% have a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment. Diagnosis can take years for many rare disease patients, and their direct medical costs are three to five times higher than someone of similar age without a rare disease. This council will serve to educate lawmakers and state agencies about these challenges and provide recommendations for policies that benefit the more than 30 million Americans living with rare diseases, including approximately one in 10 Arizonans.

The Arizona RDAC will work to improve patient access to specialists, affordable healthcare coverage, timely diagnostics, and necessary treatments through policy recommendations and public education initiatives.

Individuals can get involved and support their state’s rare disease community by joining NORD’s Rare Action Network® and learning more about NORD’s Project RDAC and Rare Disease Advisory Councils.

About the National Organization for Rare Disorders

With a 42-year history of advancing care, treatments, and policy, the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®) is the leading and longest-standing patient advocacy group for the 30 million Americans living with a rare disease. A nonpartisan, independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, NORD is dedicated to individuals with rare diseases and the organizations that serve them. NORD, along with its more than 350 patient organization members, is committed to improving the health and well-being of people with rare diseases by driving advances in care, research, and policy.

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SOURCE National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®)

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals had a pretty successful offseason.

After missing the playoffs entirely following a 6-4 record and lead in the NFC West, figures such as GM Monti Ossenfort and HC Jonathan Gannon faced tough questions approaching a third pivotal season in 2025.

The Cardinals needed to improve – but how exactly should they do so?

With some of the highest cap space in the league, Arizona quickly went to work and signed big names such as Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell.

The 2025 NFL Draft saw the Cardinals snag names such as Walter Nolen and Will Johnson to begin festivities. Six of seven draft picks landed on that side of the ball with the offense’s lone representative coming in sixth-round offensive guard Hayden Conner.

While there still could be a move or two left in the tank, Ossenfort and co.’s job on the roster is mostly done.

Though the offseason can be overall considered a success, there’s still a few questions the Cardinals must face as training camp is nearly two months away:

1. What’s going on with the offensive line?

The Cardinals still don’t know what the right side of their offensive line will look like. Prior starter Will Hernandez is still recovering from an ACL injury and remains a free agent while the same could be said for right tackle Jonah Williams – though he’s still under contract with Arizona for one more season.

Are the Cardinals confident in Isaiah Adams to get the job done? Can Kelvin Beachum still play up to par?

2. Will Continuity Pay Dividends for Cardinals Offense?

Because the Cardinals opted to heavily invest in the defensive side of the ball, Arizona made no major changes or shakeups to their offense.

The Cardinals have been on record, numerous times, expressing their confidence in Kyler Murray and Drew Petzing to take steps in the right direction, though Arizona is still running it back with the same group of players that collapsed towards the second half of the season.

3. How Will Cardinals Handle Massive Depth at DL/CB?

These two position groups were previously considered to be a weakness in years past, though the Cardinals now have successfully bolstered both – to the point where a talented player in each room will be the odd man out.

It’s a good problem to have, though the Cardinals will have to be smart in terms of both identifying who should emerge as starters and who will be utilized on the 53 man roster.

The Cardinals have bolstered their defense in 2025. But they had a surprising improvement in 2024 with less talent

The Arizona Cardinals have made a concerted effort this offseason to improve their defense, adding starting talent and depth on the defensive line, the defensive edge and linebacker in free agency and then addressing every defensive position in the NFL draft.

But that roster improvement comes after they made marked improvements from 2023 to 2024 defensively.

BetMGM’s Nick Hennion noted that the Cardinals “moved from 32nd in defensive DVOA in 2023 to 14th in 2024” and that the improvement was impressive for a number of reasons.

1. They played the third-hardest schedule of opposing offenses in 2024 after playing the hardest schedule in 2023.
2. They lost 72.9 adjusted games to injury on defense, the fourth-highest total in the league. 
   • They lost BJ Ojulari, Dennis Gardeck, Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols to season-ending injuries.

They were 15th in scoring defense last season but 21st in yards allowed. They were 14th in passing defense and 20th in run defense. However, they had an interesting dichotomy of metrics. They were sixth in the league in the percentage of opposing offensive drives ending in scores, but they were dead last in plays allowed per drive and second-to-last in time allowed per drive.

If they improved that much with a roster that is markedly worse than the current one, imagine what this year’s defense might be when they have an easier schedule.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.