football karma
Michael snuggles the cap space
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Maybe a contrarian take, but there are legitimate reasons to be optimistic for the Cardinals 2021 season.
This is not saying that the Cards don’t have challenges to fix – they do. But, on balance, the NFC teams ahead of the Cards have more challenging issues to fix.
1. The NFC is wide open. After TB, the other three NFC divisional teams are all at least $30mm over the cap and will have to shed players before they can begin to try to improve their teams.
2. There is no obvious next tier of teams outside the NFC West that look to be contenders next year. Dallas, maybe with Dak. Chicago? Atlanta? Nobody really scares you in this group. (and all have issues as bad or worse roster/cap wise than the Cards).
3. The other NFC West teams have issues no less concerning than the Cardinals. In order of “stress” :
a. The Rams are >$30mm over the cap, and all contributing CBs outside of Jalen Ramsey are FAs. Leonard Floyd, John Johnson, Austin Blythe as well. No first or third round pick. Their Head of College scouting is now the Lions GM, and he took his right hand man with him. Their D Coordinator left with assistants, and, O Pass and Run coordinators left.
b. The Seahawks are right at the cap. All starting CBs are UFAs. Three interior OL are UFAs. Add KJ Wright, Chris Carson and 3 of their 4 TEs are UFAs. Changed over the O Coordinator, which reportedly didn’t make Russ happy. Further, Russ is pressuring for O-line upgrades, but SEA’s resources are thin given the cap situation and lack of a first round pick.
c. SF has decent resources with a full slate of picks and about the same $ cap space as the Cards. Their free agents include Trent Williams, all of their starting CBs and Kyle Juszczyk. D Coordinator has left, taking key assistants. Worst QB in the division, and one where they are openly trying to replace him.
4. So why will the Cardinals improve?
a. They have an ascending QB. As often posted before, Murray is an outlier in terms of a lack of college experience prior to the NFL, compounded by a lack of college spring ball due to baseball, and, no real offseason this year due to Covid. Additional experience will provide additional growth.
b. The CBs they need to replace weren’t very good. Per PFF: P2 was 83rd out of 121 in CBs. Kirkpatrick was 105. FWIW – we complain about Byron Murphy, but he was 48/121 – just outside the top third. Replacing P2 and Kirkpatrick with, lets say, Shaquill Griffin and Mac Alexander would improve the CB spot from 83 & 105 to 49 & 63 -- a giant improvement.
c. I could go on, but this post is already too long....
so @ am all you want and tell me why I'm wrong. Its the offseason after all.............
This is not saying that the Cards don’t have challenges to fix – they do. But, on balance, the NFC teams ahead of the Cards have more challenging issues to fix.
1. The NFC is wide open. After TB, the other three NFC divisional teams are all at least $30mm over the cap and will have to shed players before they can begin to try to improve their teams.
2. There is no obvious next tier of teams outside the NFC West that look to be contenders next year. Dallas, maybe with Dak. Chicago? Atlanta? Nobody really scares you in this group. (and all have issues as bad or worse roster/cap wise than the Cards).
3. The other NFC West teams have issues no less concerning than the Cardinals. In order of “stress” :
a. The Rams are >$30mm over the cap, and all contributing CBs outside of Jalen Ramsey are FAs. Leonard Floyd, John Johnson, Austin Blythe as well. No first or third round pick. Their Head of College scouting is now the Lions GM, and he took his right hand man with him. Their D Coordinator left with assistants, and, O Pass and Run coordinators left.
b. The Seahawks are right at the cap. All starting CBs are UFAs. Three interior OL are UFAs. Add KJ Wright, Chris Carson and 3 of their 4 TEs are UFAs. Changed over the O Coordinator, which reportedly didn’t make Russ happy. Further, Russ is pressuring for O-line upgrades, but SEA’s resources are thin given the cap situation and lack of a first round pick.
c. SF has decent resources with a full slate of picks and about the same $ cap space as the Cards. Their free agents include Trent Williams, all of their starting CBs and Kyle Juszczyk. D Coordinator has left, taking key assistants. Worst QB in the division, and one where they are openly trying to replace him.
4. So why will the Cardinals improve?
a. They have an ascending QB. As often posted before, Murray is an outlier in terms of a lack of college experience prior to the NFL, compounded by a lack of college spring ball due to baseball, and, no real offseason this year due to Covid. Additional experience will provide additional growth.
b. The CBs they need to replace weren’t very good. Per PFF: P2 was 83rd out of 121 in CBs. Kirkpatrick was 105. FWIW – we complain about Byron Murphy, but he was 48/121 – just outside the top third. Replacing P2 and Kirkpatrick with, lets say, Shaquill Griffin and Mac Alexander would improve the CB spot from 83 & 105 to 49 & 63 -- a giant improvement.
c. I could go on, but this post is already too long....
so @ am all you want and tell me why I'm wrong. Its the offseason after all.............
