How close are the Cards? Really.

[kerouac9]

yes, but things werent exactly perfect for the Cardinals at the time either --particulalry the last half of the year, when each of those NFC West teams were playing for their playoff lives and the Cardinals were led by a head coach who was a dead man walking.

Actually, the Cards largely dodged the injury bullet last season. Even when Berry went down, Chike stepped in without missing a beat, and Antonio Smith slid pretty comfortable into the strongside end position.

On the other hand, a guy like Lofa Tatupu was playing with severe leg and arm injuries in Seattle, Pisa Tinoisamoa was hurt in St. Louis (along with their third-best player on offense in Orlando Pace), and San Francisco lost their Top 5 pick for the first half of the season.

The fact that the other teams with severe injuries were still competitive with the rest of the NFL while the Cards were circling the drain at nearly full strength doesn't say much about this roster.

As for Skkorp's correct observation that we don't really know how this new roster ranks in the new system, I agree. But I don't think that Mike Gandy is suddenly going to become one of the Top 8 OLTs in the NFL under a new system, so he's still not going to be better than 3. Matt Leinart may be better than Alex Smith in his second year, but is he going to be better than two guys who are Top 10 QBs in the NFL in Bulger and Hasselback? That's a tall order. New systems can help take care of abject weaknesses on a roster, and emphasize certain strengths, but the NFL is still a talent league.

It really doesn't appear that the Cards have enough bullets to be playoff contenders right now.

As for coaching, I think that Mike Holmgren remains the best coach in the division based on his three Super Bowl appearances and one ring. Mike Nolan and his staff deserves a lot of credit for building a team that remains competitive week after week and never seems to give up. Right now, I think that Linehan deserves the benefit of the doubt as the third-best coach and staff. Linehan learned a lot on the job last season, but mostly this is because he has an experienced and successful DC in Jim Haslett. The Rams defense is maybe the unit that decides how the NFC West shakes out. They have a lot of talent in the Front 7, but can they cover up their shaky secondary?

 

[slanidrac16]

Want some hope?

Look to last year. We were 3 plays from being 4- 1 instead of 1-4. We should have beat the Rams, Chiefs and the Bears. Had that happen we would have been 8-8 if the remainder of the season played out the same way.
The team has improved in both talent and coaching. That is reason for hope.


Here is the ironic twist. Had we went 4-1 , things would be SOOOOO different.
1. Green is probably still here.
2. Leinart would not have played nearly as much as he did.
3. We would be at the height of a quarterback controversy.
4. Player personel would be differnt. Players that were released might still be here and players we acquired would probably have been different.

Maybe things do happen for a reason.

 

[phillycard]

The time has come for this team to really support a new coach. I do think that the Cards believe they have a winner in Whis, but of course the cynic in all of us will say they thought they did too in Green, Ryan, Dave etc. If the Cardinals fail this go round, there will be no more excuses. This roster is really as talented on paper as any in the history of the franchise. Now it's time to cross the t's and dot the i's. And with the divison, hell the conference for that matter being so even handed, there is no excuse not to expect a contending team from here on out. I'm sorry, new coach and sysytem be damned, I EXPECT us to be in the mix come week 12. 7-9 will NOT be a success in my book, as I seem to reacll others saying they'd be happy with that. I may be being unreasonable, but I'm becoming bitter in my old age, and the Cardinals are certainly part of that. Nothing less than 8-8 will pacify me, and that would only because I can then expect marked, not minimal progress in 08.

 

[jmt]

It's just scary, however, that we have lost in the preseason to two of the worst bottom feeding teams in the league.

Pre season losses mean NOTHING! By your logic, a win over SD should put us in the Super Bowl.

 

[CardShark]

I'm sure we all recognize the strengths of this team and it's logical that we'll need to see how this team plays when it counts to properly evaluate our weak areas. Gameplanning makes a big difference over the preseason. Real coaching should have a huge impact over last season. How many games would you need to evaluate to see how close we are? How soon should moves be made if it's determined that we are in the hunt if we shore up 1 or 2 positions? Do you think Graves would be that aggressive and act on it? Of course those players would have to be made available.

Without the benefit of seeing the regular season being played out, I still think our season rests on the LB corps. Is there a starting caliber player that could be released? Is there a team out there that is so loaded at LB that they might trade a quality player?