Arizona Cardinals roster among middle of the pack in ESPN roster rankings heading into 2025
After an exciting offseason that reshaped their roster, the Cardinals head into the 2025 season ranked 17th in ESPN's projected roster rankings.
Safety Budda Baker #3 of the Arizona Cardinals leads a huddle prior to an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, at State Farm Stadium on January 5, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
(Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
After an exciting offseason that reshaped their roster, the Arizona Cardinals head into the 2025 season ranked 17th in ESPN’s projected roster rankings.
The Cardinals showed signs of improvement during the 2024 season, going 8-9 in Jonathan Gannon’s second year with the team, and made numerous offseason moves positioning themselves to take the leap into contention in 2025.
Defense was heavily prioritized in the offseason with the additions of Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell among others. The Cardinals also reinforced their defense with young talent in the 2025 NFL draft, with six of their seven draft picks being defensive players.
Despite their busy summer, ESPN ranked the Cardinals roster as the 17th best in the league.
ESPN writers highlighted each team’s biggest strength, biggest weakness, 2025 X-factor and nonstarter to know for the upcoming season. Let’s go through each category and see how the Cardinals’ new roster is shaping up for the 2025 NFL season.
Biggest strength:
ESPN listed the Cardinals’ biggest strength as their defensive line. Mike Clay writes:
Their biggest weakness last season has become their biggest strength. After finishing 2024 ranked 28th and 20th in pass rush win rate (33.3%) and run stop win rate (29.8%), respectively, Arizona now has potential. Standout veterans Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell were signed to anchor the interior, with recent first-round picks Darius Robinson (2024) and Walter Nolen III (2025) adding upside. Justin Jones, L.J. Collier, Dante Stills and Bilal Nichols will compete for depth roles.
The Cardinals addressed one of their biggest holes last season by overhauling their defensive line this offseason.
They signed veteran Dalvin Tomlinson on a two-year $29 million contract in March. Tomlinson is entering his ninth year in the league and has been known for his reliable presence on the field and his steady run support. He has an overall PFF grade of 67.4, which is ranked 42nd out of 219 qualifying defensive linemen.
Alongside Tomlinson, the team brought back former Cardinal Calais Campbell. Campbell is one the league’s oldest veterans and is entering his 17th season in the NFL. In his sole season with Miami, Campbell had 52 tackles and five sacks in 17 games in 2024.
Adding two experienced veterans will help support the two promising defensive linemen the Cardinals selected in the first round of the last two NFL drafts.
The Cardinals used their 2025 first round pick on Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen III. Nolen made life difficult for SEC quarterbacks all season for Ole Miss generating 48 tackles and 6.5 sacks on his way to being named a First-Team All-American and First-Team All-SEC.
Nolen will be joining Darius Robinson in the trenches, one of the Cardinals’ first round selections in 2024.
Robinson had a less than desired rookie year in Arizona, playing in only six games and registering 10 total tackles and a single sack. Despite his limited Year-1 reps, Robinson has had a full offseason to get back to full health and is looking eager to carve out a role on the team’s promising defense.
The Cardinals’ influx of young talent and veteran presences will be further aided by role players like L.J. Collier and Dante Stills, who both had larger roles than expected in 2024 and can help round out an already deep defensive line group heading into the season.
Biggest Weakness:
While the defensive line group grew significantly over the offseason, the same can’t be said for their linebackers, which was named the Cardinals’ biggest weakness after opting to not bring back 2024 starter Kyzir White.
Although White wasn’t a huge impact player for the Cardinals last season, he still played in all 17 games and was second among Arizona defenders (93.65%) in snaps played. His snaps and production will be replaced by Mack Wilson Sr. and recently signed Akeem Davis-Gaither.
Wilson Sr. is entering his seventh year in the league and second season with the Cardinals. In 16 games last year, Wilson Sr. totaled 75 total tackles and three sacks. Wilson Sr. graded in the middle of the pack of linebackers last season but has stayed healthy for the majority of his career.
He will be joined by Davis-Gaither, who had spent his entire five-year career in Cincinnati. In 17 games, he posted his best career numbers earning 82 total tackles.
Although both Wilson Sr. and Davis-Gaither’s PFF grades are less to be desired, the Cardinals will be hoping the new tandem can surpass expectations with the increased help up front.
2025 X-factor:
It’s not a surprise that ESPN listed newly signed Josh Sweat as the team’s X-factor heading into the 2025 season. Sweat was the Cardinals’ big chip signing over the offseason, securing a four-year deal worth $76.4 million.
The biggest question surrounding Sweat is which version of him will show up this year? Sweat had strong pass rush win rates prior to the 2024 season but regressed to a mediocre 11% pass rush win rate during the regular season last year.
Sweat was able to silence some of those talks with his stellar play during the Super Bowl (2.5 sacks), which surely convinced the Cardinals that he can be the premier edge talent to pair opposite of Zaven Collins.
Nonstarter to know:
ESPN named Baron Browning as a name to know heading into the season. Browning was acquired by the Cardinals in the middle of the season and quietly had a solid end to the year, earning two sacks and 14 tackles in eight games.
ESPN’s Aaron Schatz writes:
Browning has never played a full season since entering the NFL in 2021 and had only two sacks and 18 pressures last season, which he split between Denver and Arizona. Browning will get a chance for plenty of playing time this season in an edge rusher rotation made up of Sweat and a lot of “maybe” players.
Expectations for Browning will be low, but with a lot of uncertainty surrounding the 2025 Cardinals’ linebacker group, Browning could position himself to step up if the team needs him.
Projected starters for the Cardinals in 2025
| QB | Kyler Murray | DT | Dalvin Tomlinson |
| RB | James Conner | DT | Calais Campbell |
| RB | Trey Benson | DT | Darius Robinson |
| WR | Marvin Harrison Jr. | Edge | Josh Sweat |
| WR | Michael Wilson | Edge | Zaven Collins |
| WR | Greg Dortch | LB | Mack Wilson Sr. |
| TE | Trey McBride | LB | Akeem Davis-Gaither |
| LT | Paris Johnson Jr. | CB | Garrett Williams |
| LG | Evan Brown | CB | Will Johnson |
| C | Hjalte Froholdt | CB | Max Melton |
| RG | Isaiah Adams | S | Budda Baker |
| RT | Jonah Williams | S | Jalen Thompson |
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Comments
14 Comments
Ill give you Alex Smith. Struggled until Harbough came along and went to the NFC Title Game and then was pretty good the rest of his career. Staffy was an established All-Pro by year seven and Goff had already been to the Super Bowl and multiple playoff trips by then.
My point is, its exceedingly rare to become Alex Smith, and even he didnt win, or even get to, the Super Bowl. Its not going to happen with Kyler or it already would have.
Maybe it will be a case of stocking the roster, and then getting some other dude who can win in 26.
I feel like the roster is much better than it was a couple year ago, for certain. Great job Monti thus far.
My areas of concern are: QB-Can Kyler string together an entire season of quality QB play in year seven and win some critical games? (My feeling is no). LB-Who is going to lead this unit and make the plays that are necessary in big moments? Is the rookie going to start day 1? WR-I feel like we are still missing a speed, #2 receiver type. Wilson has the look of a quality 3, not a quality 2.
Those are my three areas of concern, obviously QB is the biggest. Its Kyler's make it or break it year, and I cant think of another good, but inconsistent QB that became elite in year 7.
Kyler has been in a position to win in at least 2 out of his 6 seasons and faded miserably. Staffy was not. Its not hard to look at rosters and realize the Lions of that time period were not going to win. Matt was traded to a team with a good roster and won the SB.
The Bengals didnt win last year, you hear anyone blaming Burrow?
Kyler cannot win when the lights are bright and the pressure is on. I sincerely hope that changes, but if Alex Smith is the only comparable, we are definitely in trouble.