The Draft Network: Arizona Cardinals could be bottom 10 team in 2022

Kyler Murray #1 of the Arizona Cardinals throws a move towards the Los Angeles Rams in the course of the second half within the NFC Wild Card Playoff sport at SoFi Stadium on January 17, 2022 in Inglewood, California. (Picture by Ronald Martinez/Getty Photos)

(Picture by Ronald Martinez/Getty Photos)

Though the Arizona Cardinals have regularly improved their document in every year underneath head coach Kliff Kingsbury, The Draft Community’s Jack McKessy thinks the staff has the potential to fall to a top-10 choose within the 2023 NFL Draft.

Arizona completed the season within the NFC Wild Card sport towards the Los Angeles Rams, ending with an 11-7 document after hovering to a 9-2 begin.

That’s not as sizzling a take as it could appear. The brink for selecting within the prime 10 on this 12 months’s draft was a 7-10 document. If Arizona had misplaced the three one-score video games they gained final season, they’d have already been knocking on the door of the highest 10. Given the Cardinals’ offseason exercise, there might simply be 4 extra losses with this staff than final 12 months’s iteration.

A top-10 choose wouldn’t solely be a serious step again, however a slap within the face to many across the Valley after the coach and normal supervisor Steve Keim simply acquired hefty extensions.

The six-game suspension to wideout DeAndre Hopkins in addition to the departure of Christian Kirk in free company are two of the most important obvious points this offseason because the Cardinals’ document dramatically suffered when Hopkins missed time because of harm in 2021.

Arizona addressed the necessity by buying and selling for Marquise “Hollywood” Brown from the Baltimore Ravens on draft night time. Though many across the Valley are excited to see the Kyler Murray-Brown tandem again collectively, many across the NFL world are usually not as impressed with the strikes made within the offseason. The most important query mark is who will change Chandler Jones?

To switch Jones are two rookies—Cameron Thomas and Myjai Sanders—that can actually must show themselves worthy NFL-level replacements, particularly if J.J. Watt’s harm bug rears its ugly head as soon as once more in 2022.

Instead of Kirk, the Cardinals traded their first-round choose to the Ravens for Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Murray’s former school receiver. Whereas Brown is greater than a worthy alternative, the fee for Arizona makes the acquisition extra questionable. It doesn’t look any higher when contemplating A.J. Brown was out there for the same value and that Hollywood must be the Cardinals’ No. 1 receiver for six weeks with Hopkins’ suspension.

McKessy goes on to elucidate that Arizona faces an uphill climb over these first six video games whatever the suspension to Hopkins. The Cardinals at the moment have the second-hardest schedule for 2022 primarily based on final season’s data.

He predicts that the Cardinals will end the season 8-9 and that they aren’t a nasty staff, simply in a troublesome spot.