Ian Hartitz identifies the Arizona Cardinals and team needs for the NFL Draft and 2025 season.

2023 was a bit of a lost cause for the Cardinals due to Kyler Murray missing the first nine weeks of the season. However, a healthy Kyler, improved defense entering Year 2 under head coach Jonathan Gannon, and presence of alleged generational No. 4 overall pick WR Marvin Harrison Jr. made the Cardinals a bit of a darkhorse to make some noise in the NFC.

Sadly, that never quite came to fruition. Arizona was sitting pretty at 6-4 and in first place entering its Week 11 bye, but a 2-5 finish down the stretch led to the franchise missing the playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine years. Not too far of—the Cardinals' +21-point differential was actually quite a bit better than the NFC West champion Rams (-19)—but ultimately not quite good enough.

Today we'll recap some of the good and bad of 2024 before getting into potential offseason injuries to monitor as well as team needs ahead of the 2025 offseason.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

ARIZONA CARDINALS 2024 RECAP

  • Record: 8-9 (7.5 preseason win total)
  • Points per game: 23.5 (12th)
  • EPA per dropback: +0.126 (13th)
  • EPA per rush: -0.023 (8th)
  • Points per game allowed: 22.3 (15th)
  • Leading passer: Kyler Murray (3,851 pass yards, 21 TD, 11 INT)
  • Leading rusher: James Conner (236 carries, 1,094 yards, 8 TD)
  • Leading receiver: Trey McBride (111 receptions, 1,146 yards, 2 TD)

Biggest surprise: RB James Conner

Shoutout to Trey McBride as well, but Conner faced a bit more uncertainty entering 2024 after the team decided to use the 66th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft on Trey Benson. The 29-year-old veteran was obviously still expected to work as the lead back, but something closer to a committee was certainly on the table.

Or not, because Conner emerged as one of the league's single-best RBs with the football in his hands.

Overall, only Josh Jacobs (97) broke more tackles than Conner (91) on the ground in 2024, while only Jahmyr Gibbs (13.6%) and Derrick Henry (11.4%) had higher explosive run rates than the eight-year veteran (11%).

Clearly the Cardinals liked what they saw, as Conner was rewarded with a two-year, $19-million extension at the end of November that locks him down in Arizona through the 2026 season.

Biggest disappointment: WR Marvin Harrison Jr.

This is all relative to Harrison’s standing in the fantasy football community prior to the season, as he carried an average draft position (ADP) inside the position's top-10 overall players across the industry. Overall, Harrison's WR40 finish in PPR points per game produced a -30 dropoff compared to his WR10 ADP—only Deebo Samuel (-31), Michael Pittman (-32), and Diontae Johnson (-36) were worse among all WRs with a top-36 positional ADP (excluding injuries).

Of course, the playcalling and usage involved left quite a bit to be desired throughout the season. The artist known as Maserati Marv was the only WR with at least 25% of their targets coming on go routes in 2024 (min. 70 targets). Maybe mix in a crossing route from time to time and see what happens?

Ultimately, it was borderline shocking to see Trey McBride (147 targets) so severely out-target Harrison (116) even while playing one less game; failure to further tap into the 2024 NFL Draft's No. 4 overall pick's skill set could (again) leave him as more of a boom-or-bust WR3 ahead of 2025.

Key injuries

The Cardinals' key fantasy-relevant players are tentatively believed to be healthy entering the 2025 offseason. James Conner (knee) and Trey Benson (ankle) did end the season on the injured reserve list, but that was seemingly more so due to the timing of the injuries as well as the Cardinals' disappearing playoff chances as opposed to extreme severity. 

 

What Are The Biggest Needs of the Cardinals Ahead Of 2025?

Team Need No. 1: EDGE

The team's plethora of free agent EDGE defenders leaves the Cardinals with a mere $6.2 million devoted to the position ahead of 2025—easily the lowest mark in the league.

Additionally, the performance from this group left quite a bit to be desired in 2024. This was a bottom-8 group in both pressure rate and average time to pressure last season.

Most of the team's key contributors from the secondary remain under contract, so sprucing up the line of scrimmage seems like the best path to improving the league's reigning 24th-ranked defense in EPA allowed per dropback.

Team Need No. 2: Guard

Starting guards Evan Brown and Will Hernandez join backup Trystan Colon as free agents, leaving PFF's reigning 16th-ranked offensive line in need of some reinforcements up the middle.

Honestly, re-signing the lot might be the best move here. Each earned favorable grades from PFF among 83 qualified players at the position:

The Cardinals have the sixth fewest 2025 dollars devoted to their offensive line; maintaining some semblance of continuity up the middle will hopefully help the Cardinals improve in Year 3 under OC Drew Petzing.

Team Need No. 3: Wide Receiver

Obviously Kyler Murray already has a solid one-two pass-catching punch between Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride. However, there's a little-known fact that exists in the year 2025: It's legal for an NFL team to have more than one good WR!

Now, I appreciate our one true short king Greg Dortch as much as the next fantasy football nerd, and Michael Wilson has performed admirably with back-to-back 500-plus yard seasons to start his career. Still, this group could really use someone capable of separating with more consistency.

Cardinals WRs in ESPN's "Open Score:"

  • Harrison: 60 (43rd among 116 WRs)
  • Dortch: 44 (89th)
  • Wilson: 34 (109th)

Overall, the Cardinals had the league's fifth-worst average Open Score among all their qualified WRs and TEs. Arizona is also one of just 10 teams with under $16 million devoted to the WR room ahead of next season; at a minimum finding some more shifty replacements for their free agents could help provide a new element to this offense.