ESPN’s Clayton: Arizona Cardinals will be ‘somewhere in the mix’
Sep 20, 2013, 6:31 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm
The Arizona Cardinals flew in under the radar this season with Super Bowl favorites San Francisco and Seattle, along with up-and-coming St. Louis.
Two games into the campaign there are 1-1, with a close loss on the road to the Rams and a close win at home against the Detroit Lions.
Outside of Arizona the team is not generating much buzz, though, which as ESPN NFL insider John Clayton told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Friday morning, is just fine.
“They’re sneaking up on people, and I think that’s probably the best thing that Bruce Arians could hope for,” he said. “Not have people have all the big expectations.
“But I think you can see the team’s playing pretty well.”
Clayton said the Cardinals have shown their passing game, with Carson Palmer, is much improved, and the defense that played well last season has not really dropped off.
Whether or not that will be enough to overtake any of the three teams projected to finish ahead of them remains to be seen, though Clayton believes the Cardinals will be in the race.
“You look at Arizona and you see a lot of good things are happening there,” he said. “In this quagmire of close games…Arizona hasn’t set itself apart, but you can see it’s going to be somewhere in the mix.”
