We had a strong WR core?! Don't have to be a defeatist to find that comment baseless in fact. And the comment that "many were saying the Cardinals had one more run in them" sounds like a statement Trump would make. I don't remember seeing many (if any) people in the national media believing we were any type of contender... or even playoff pretender. Sure, the Cardinals themselves said as much, but I'd love to see the "many" people mentioned.
As to people believing the D would be really good, I recall most stories about us in the offseason questioning how big the dropoff would be losing CC and Jefferson.
Lot of revisionist history here about what the outlook of this team was gonna be going into the season, IMO.
There were many people that had the Cards as playoff contenders prior to the season. The division was basically considered a 2 team race. I remember when NFL network went game by game through the Cards schedule, the worst prediction of the panel was 10-6, best was 12-4. There were questions about the loss of talent on the defense, no question about that.
And, really, pre-season predictions, as the Cards case demonstrates, mean nothing. Most "pundits" had Dallas winning the NFC and playing GB in the NFC championship. Both will likely miss the playoffs as, like the Cards, their season has been marred by star players being out of action. Who had the Rams and Saints at 7-2?
I think people forget how big a loss David Johnson was. He was at/near the top of the candidate list for MVP of the league and he played about 2/3 of a game. He was the focal point of the offense. Look how putrid Dallas looked last week without Elliott and their starting LT. The Cards have played almost their entire season without those 2 positions. Look at GB after Rodgers went down. Rodgers is better than Palmer but CP was as also very important to the Cards offense.
If you don't think the Cards would have been a MUCH better team with a healthy CP, Johnson, Humphries, Golden, and to a lesser extent John Brown et al, then I don't know what to say. That's Trump level deniability.
But the injuries did happen and they now stink. That's part of the NFL.