There has been one game in the postseason in the last nine years for the Cards. That year also brought the only winning season record during that period, so maybe asking whether Arizona will make the playoffs should provoke a very short and concise answer. But there was hope in the summer (isn’t there always?), so were we all being too optimistic again?
If you asked most people planning to bet on a Super Bowl champion this year, it is unlikely that many would immediately put their hard-earned money behind the Cardinals – even if they are diehard fans. But should we already be looking towards next year and hoping that fortunes will be brighter in 2026?
It is only early days in the 2025 NFL season, and the Cardinals are currently sporting a 2-2 record. That is a lot better than many other teams in the league. So, can we finally anticipate playoff football this season? Or will the Cards look on from the sidelines once again?
Improvement on Last Year
Before any Arizona Cardinals fan can think about the Super Bowl or even the playoffs, he or she should be concentrating on improvement. After a few years of terrible win totals, the Cards picked up in 2024, and improving on eight wins should be the immediate aim for the coaches and the players.
There were a lot of factors pointing to an improvement this season, but it is the relationships on the field of play that really matter. It will be a cliché you hear from people in sports all the time, but the Cards need to take this one game at a time. Plans were put in place by Jonathan Gannon and Monti Ossenfort when they arrived two years ago to improve steadily, and that should still be the overriding aim.
Slow Starters
Those two wins to kick off the new season were justifiably met with a sliver of suspicion by Cardinals fans. Beating the Saints and the Panthers is never going to be a sure-fire sign that a team is going to win a championship, and most right-thinking people knew that there would be tougher days ahead.
The next two games have been very different, and one very noticeable aspect of the losses is that Arizona has been incredibly slow to get going. Yes, they were two tough games in the space of just five days, but the Cards could only manage three points in the first half, on average, gaining just over three yards rushing and passing. There is always room for a comeback, but the team needs to be coming out of the blocks quicker.
Divisional Problems
Another worrying aspect of the losses in weeks three and four was that they came against divisional rivals. The 49ers were always going to bounce back from a disappointing 2024, and the Seahawks are tipped to do well this year. But divisional win totals might be all-important by the end of the regular season.
There is another back-to-back divisional matchup at the beginning of November, while the two games against the Rams come in the last five weeks of the season. The Cards need to have improved against their closest rivals by the time that first game – at home – comes around.
Weight of Expectation
Professional athletes should be quite used to dealing with pressure, but the 2025 Arizona Cardinals will have found themselves in a relatively unusual position at the start of this season, in that there was a weight of expectation on them to continue the improvement, and potentially make the playoffs.
Doubling your win total in just one season will do that to a fanbase desperate for something to celebrate, and the Cards had everyone thinking the team would progress. A revamped roster and the hope for year two development from some of the bigger names on the roster fostered a lot of hope. Maybe that expectation was too weighty?
Win the Division
We stated earlier that all the Arizona Cardinals should be concentrating on is improvement, and to take things one step at a time. But that way of thinking should be on the way to claiming an NFC West title for the first time since 2015. That’s why those losses to the 49ers and Seahawks stung.
The bad news here is that Kyler Murray’s record against divisional rivals is 8-22. That’s the worst record among starting quarterbacks since the realignment in 2002. So, that hope for improvement should include winning at least three of the remaining four divisional matchups, and then looking to pick up as many more as possible along the way.
Still Time
The good news is that there is still plenty of time for the Cards to turn this season around. Those two wins in the early weeks can be used as a foundation for a real challenge for the NFC West and a spot in the playoffs for the first time in three years. It won’t be straightforward, but reaching the bye week with a 4-3 – or even a 5-2 – record is crucial in that respect.
After a week’s rest, the Cards come back against the Cowboys on the road in front of the Monday Night cameras, and that begins a stretch of games that could make or break Arizona’s playoff hopes. Although Cards fans should always adhere to the “any given Sunday” rule, the run-in of the regular season looks tough too, so racking up a few wins in mid-season looks to be vital. Those preseason dreams might already be fading a little, but there is still time for the Cards to pull this around.
