By Jack McNicholas

May 8, 2020

This time last year, the Cardinals had a new quarterback a new coach and a mission. With that first pick, the Cardinals selected Kyler Murray. That new coach was Kliff Kingsbury. The mission of the team who selects first in the draft is to go into the next season with expectations of getting to the next level of winning. Kyler Murray took home the offensive rookie of the year. Kliff Kingsbury worked his air raid offense into the NFL and now in 2020 the Cardinals are a team to watch. The reasons are due to this team being one of the least successful teams only two years ago. Last year was a start as they wound ways to win games in 2019, less than they would have liked. 

After starting their rebuild last season, the Cardinals have nothing but positive storylines coming out of this offseason as they prepare for the next chapter. The team needed a number one wide receiver as Larry Fitzgerald will be thirty-seven when the season starts. In one of the most shocking trades of the offseason, the Cardinals traded for Texans star wide receiver Deandre Hopkins. This trade resulted in the Texans obtaining running back David Johnson. This meant that the Cardinals did not have to pay for David Johnson’s salary after signing him to a lucrative deal back in 2018. After Johnson was dealing with injuries this past season, the Cardinals traded for running back Kenyan Drake midseason, who received a transition tag this offseason. Essentially tagging him for this season and having first priority to sign him. In 2019 Drake appeared in eight games in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. Now with a full offseason and a full load of rushing work, Drake can prove to be a player to watch on this Cardinals offense, which ranked top ten in the league in rushing. 

 This draft, Arizona tried to use their first two picks on the best player available when their team was up. In the first round, the Cardinals were able to get a top defender to fall into their lap with Isaiah Simmons out of Clemson, who has played all over the field on defense. Simmons, along with his 4.39 speed will help take this defense to the next level. The move to draft Simmons was not a tough one considering many analysts believed he would not fall this far. Getting a steal on defense will help the Cardinals in a tough division. With the third round selection, they picked Josh Jones out of Houston, who will be the tackle that the Cardinals needed. Jones was another pick that fell into their lap after originally being labeled an early second round selection. Falling to the mid rounds, this time it was an offensive move. The selection of Josh Jones benefits Kyler Murray and Kenyan Drake as blocking was one of their main priorities going into the draft. The NFC West Rivals all have reasons to have excited fans, but the Cardinals are interesting because of the large amount of optimism in the building. With the tough division they will have to score more than the 22.6 points that they posted in 2019, ranking them 17th in that category. With young talent, a solid draft class and the potential to make waves in a very competitive division, the Cardinals give reason to believe they can be a very exciting team in 2020. 

Despite not being favorited to win the crowded NFC West, with the new playoff format allowing seven teams from each division. The Cardinals see the optimism heading into the season. However, there is no doubt they will be a very exciting team to watch. There was evident progress made in the Draft and the trades they made came out on top. The Arizona Cardinals are the team to watch. They will not make a deep playoff push this season, but rest assured they are moving in the right direction. For Cardinals fans, this season is one to look forward to as the team continues to make strides with Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury going into their second year together. Watch this for the progression of Murray, who was productive his rookie year and hopes to continue to build himself into one of the best young quarterbacks.