NFL Preview: Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals bombed last year, finishing poorly and sliding to an embarrassing third place in the softest division in football. 2010 was never going to be their year, but it was unexpectedly dismal considering the amount of athletic talent on the roster.

It’s a funny thing with the Cards: if you look at their playmakers they rank as some of the best in the league, and their coach is an experienced mastermind who has been to the Superbowl on more than one occasion. So what gives? Why is the Cardinals’ trophy cabinet as barren as the desert in which they play?

There are a couple of reasons that spring to mind and both are in an aerial vein.

Firstly, the Cards have been in the past, never more so than last year, a really one dimensional team. When they went on that amazing Superbowl run they threw the ball a lot, but well. Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston had unbelievable chemistry. What they did last year was throw the ball badly. They go desperate too often and tried to get the ball into the hands of the man who has, so often in the past, made things happen.

But Fitz can’t do it on his own, which leads me to my second area of concern: the Quarterback. The reinvigoration of Kurt Warner’s career was a fairytale. His performance in the Cardinals’ Superbowl season was Hall of Fame worthy. His poise, maturity and connection with a young group of pass-catchers made what was a loaded but misfiring blunderbuss into a clinical and effective sniper rifle. And they didn’t even hit full stride until the playoffs, where Warner’s age and experience really came to the fore.

So they need a quality QB and they have secured the services of Kevin Kolb, a former Eagle back-up and assumed successor to Donovan McNabb until the emergence of Michael Vick.

Is Kolb the man? I’m going to say yes. I think Kolb’s desire to start at long last, his work ethic, his skill-set that suits a west coast offence despite it not being run in the same way in Philadelphia and a wealth of receiving talent are all reasons the Cardinals should feel good about their signing.

However, hoping that this will be their year would be a waste of time. The Rams figure to improve on a great first year for Sam Bradford and I think they will win the division that should have been theirs last year.

Verdict: The Cardinals will be back, but not in 2011. (8-8)


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