ARIZONA CARDINALS

Roundtable: The Arizona Cardinals’ best- and worst-case scenarios for 2024

Sep 6, 2024, 7:45 AM | Updated: 9:45 am

Year 2 of the Jonathan Gannon era begins most notably with quarterback Kyler Murray healthy. The Arizona Cardinals have more reasons to be optimistic about taking a leap from a four-win 2023 season.

But questions about the roster remain, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

We asked our Arizona Sports hosts and editors a few questions to prepare for the long-awaited 2024 season.

The first big-picture question we asked: What are the best- and worst-case scenarios for this team? Give a ceiling and floor in win totals, too.

Arizona Cardinals predictions: How many games will the Cardinals win in 2024?

Ron Wolfley, co-host of Wolf & Luke: I believe the Cardinals will be an excellent, offensive football team. They will score enough points to win nine or 10 games. In my opinion, 10 wins is the ceiling and seven wins is the floor.


Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta: I think the Cardinals will be significantly better and I can see seven wins on the horizon (a three-win improvement). But if we’re talking about ceiling and floor, if they get a couple of breaks, I think the win ceiling is nine. If the injury bug hits again, I believe the floor is five wins.


John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Best-case scenario for me is nine wins, worst-case is six. I like four-game windows of best- and worst-case. But at the very least, I see them being two games better than last year with a fully healthy Murray for the full season, a new addition in Marvin Harrison Jr. and a second year under Gannon.


Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke: Barring an unreasonably high number of injuries, they should land right in the seven-to-10 win range. Losing BJ Ojulari for the year and Darius Robinson for at least the first month is a problem, and the schedule isn’t exactly easy — especially with the way certain games are grouped together.

But it’s hard to ignore the fact they were basically a .500 team after Murray came back last season, and that was while he was still adjusting to the new offense and working his way back from injury. Plus, there was a lot less talent on that roster compared to now.

There’s also the very real possibility that Harrison is just uncoverable and the offense takes off this season.


Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Best-case is a playoff appearance, that much is obvious. It would represent the positive roster building that we all hope is going on combined with the rapid ascension that happens more often in the NFL than you might think. Most national observers think it’s too much too soon, and while they may be right, it’s also a very safe prediction. Nobody was going out on a limb to say the Texans were a playoff team a year ago and very few will do the same for the Cardinals.

The worst case is key guys get hurt and you never get a chance to find out if you were capable of reaching your best case. If you’re healthy and you fail, at the very least you’ll have a clearer idea of what needs to be done.

Ceiling: 11 wins (yeah, I said it). Floor: Six. But I’d be very disappointed if they didn’t get to seven wins.


Tyler Drake, Cardinals reporter and co-host of the Cardinals Corner podcast: An 11-win season with a Wild Card berth is the ceiling in 2024. The schedule isn’t easy by any means, though a late-season run is certainly a possibility given the competition in the backend. As far as the floor, that sits at a repeat four-win season.

Despite posting a 4-13 record in 2023, the Cardinals showed clear improvement on and off the field under Gannon and Monti Ossenfort in Year 1. But turning in a similar showing record-wise after reloading the roster simply cannot happen. You can only rely on good feelings and promise for so long. Eventually, the wins have to be there in a business built on production.


Lauren Koval, co-host of the Cardinals Corner podcast: Let’s be optimistic here and start with best-case for the Cardinals, which is a double-digit win season and a playoff berth. The Cardinals have not been to the playoffs since 2021, which is a drought Cardinals fans I am sure have in the back of their minds. The front half of their schedule has little room for failure, so they will have to be hot right out of the gates. If they can get hot during the back half, that opens things up for them to go on a substantial win streak.

Any win total above eight wins would be the greatest jump in Cardinals history. The floor for this team would be a repeat of last season: 4-13. If the injuries begin to pile up and Darius Robinson has to stay on the IR longer than expected, the lack of depth for this team would do them in.


Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: Ten wins is the ceiling, and four wins is the floor.

The offense has to be really good. If this is not an elite team running the football, it’s going to be an ugly year. I expect the Cardinals to be fine there. The passing game will be a lot more interesting to monitor. They have one of the five best wideout-tight end combos in the league, arguably top-three. Beyond that, we’ll see.

It’s a gigantic year for Murray. We saw hints last year at his future role, which is more in line with serving as a game manager while being capable of an explosive play at any time. That’s a tricky balance to find and the flashes of electricity still have to be there in order for this team to be great. He does not have to be the superhero he was in epic moments like the comeback against the Raiders. Still has to have the cape, though.

The defense has enough established talent and potential talent for me to be open to the possibility of competence. It just feels too much like a house of cards situation. Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols have to be good free-agent signings or the defensive line will be brutal. The pass rush has to find a surprise handful-of-sacks contributor in the vein of Dennis Gardeck, and the fact that the best candidate is a fifth-round rookie is concerning. The secondary has to not only make Sean Murphy-Bunting a competent CB1 but find reliable youngsters to fill out the rest of the picture.

There’s a lot to like about the direction the Cardinals are going in, but it’s a year early to believe that all of it is going to come to fruition. Six wins this year, 11 in 2025.


Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: Best case? This team has a miraculous start that echoes 2021 where they take the football world by storm and Murray inserts himself into the MVP conversation. They could continue that best-case scenario by not fizzling out after they reach the 10-win mark, or embarrassing themselves in the postseason after limping into it.

The offense clicks in the ways we had only dreamed of, the defense becomes the unsung heroes of the Cardinals, and the coaching trio of Gannon, Drew Petzing and Nick Rallis cement themselves as a fearsome group that will send chills down the spines of opponents.

Worst case? Nothing seems to work, and it is unexplainable as to why. The offense can’t get in rhythm, the defense meets the expectations that all the detractors had, and the team shows zero evident growth based on last year’s body of work. If I were to predict a drastic result from it? Budda Baker gets traded before the deadline.

Wins ceiling: 10. Wins floor: Four.


Alex Weiner, ArizonaSports.com editor: The best-case scenario here is the Cardinals become a top-10 scoring offense that can beat you in several ways, with offensive coordinator Drew Petzing making strides as one of the most impactful young coordinators. Be it their physicality in the run game, a healthy Murray’s playmaking – maybe 500 rushing yards for the first time since 2020 – or the ability to air it out to a true X receiver in Marvin Harrison Jr. and a top-tier pass-catching tight end in Trey McBride, this offense becomes must-see TV.

The defense, for its lack of known quantities, offers breakout performances from a couple of their young cornerbacks, plus linebackers Xavier Thomas and Zaven Collins. The team survives a brutal early schedule and goes on a late run to reach 10 wins and sneak up on the Wild Card race. Let’s send Jalen Thompson to his first Pro Bowl, too.

Worst-case is that a mid-tier offense cannot overcompensate for a defense that is already missing BJ Ojulari for the season and Darius Robinson for the first four games at least. Their struggles to rush the passer put a young secondary in tough positions. The early-season schedule digs them too deep of a whole, and the Cardinals finish 5-12.


Kevin Zimmerman, ArizonaSports.com lead editor: I believe the Cardinals offense can make a major leap and am buying Murray stock. He has his weapons, though I have questions about the offensive line depth. And while the defense did get better on paper, the lack of pass rush is a problem even if this team is completely healthy.

Depth inevitably will be tested at most positions. There should be enough firepower to compete in any game if Murray is playing. Call the ceiling nine wins.

As for the floor, the defense didn’t add much for playmakers and the depth still isn’t there. A ding to Murray or Marvin Harrison Jr. would be uh-oh time. A series of long-term injuries to starters anywhere and we’re talking five wins, and that’s only because I believe in the coaching staff more than I do the roster depth.

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Roundtable: The Arizona Cardinals’ best- and worst-case scenarios for 2024