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The Arizona Cardinals are not entering the 2024 NFL season with much fanfare coming off of consecutive 4-13 seasons in 2022 and 2023, the latter of which was Jonathan Gannon’s first as head coach.
However, a few underlying metrics reveal there may be more to them than the surface level win-loss numbers. For starters, one has to factor in face-of-the-franchise quarterback Kyler Murray missing nearly half (15) of a possible 34 the last two seasons while dealing with a torn ACL he suffered in the back half of the 2022 campaign. He will now enter the 2024 season as healthy as he has been in years.
Arizona also had the NFL’s best strength of victory (.588), which is the combined record of all teams that were beaten during their regular season schedule, with wins over three playoff teams — the 12-5 Dallas Cowboys, 11-6 Philadelphia Eagles and 10-7 Pittsburgh Steelers. Those three wins over playoff teams were more than the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and high-flying Miami Dolphins had in 2023 combined. Still, the Cardinals have the worst odds to win the NFC West in 2024 with +1500 odds, per Caesars Sportsbook, well behind the Seattle Seahawks (+750), Los Angeles Rams (+350) and the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers (-225).
“Yeah, I mean, let them sleep,” Murray said in a sit down with NFL On CBS analyst Tiki Barber on Wednesday. “Our job is to wake them up and allow them to realize what’s going on out here. I think, with the addition of (2024 first-round pick) Marv[in Harrison Jr.], obviously, he’s a natural God-gifted ability to play the position of wide receiver. Mike Wilson, Greg Dortch, [Trey McBride. Man, James [Conner] and all the running backs that we have, our O-line, I think a lot of people started to see that last year, we play hard. We play the right way, and you just keep adding weapons to that, and another year into the system with [offensive coordinator] Drew…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/let-them-sleep-cardinals-kyler-murray-ready-to-shock-the-nfl-with-marvin-harrison-jr-helping-lead-the-way/
Author : Garrett Podell
Publish date : 2024-08-23 12:35:12
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