The Cardinals’ slide in the Week 6 consensus NFL power rankings says just about everything you need to know about where this season is headed right now.
Arizona is sitting near the bottom across the board, and the latest wave of rankings only drove the point home harder after a rough loss to the Lions. The season-opening win over the Chargers still shows up in a few assessments, but that result is losing shine fast as the losses pile up and the offense and defense both keep giving ground.
Mike Florio’s read was blunt: "The Week 1 win over the Chargers becomes less impressive by the week."
Conor Orr pointed to the bigger picture around Jacoby Brissett, noting that the Cardinals now have a full season sample size of him as a starter, though it came with two head coaches. Orr wrote: "The result?
2-15 record, 35th in total EPA among qualifying quarterbacks. But, as Mike LaFleur said after Sunday’s loss, I truly don’t think he’s the problem.
When the Lions can simply double your best wideouts and wreak havoc, there are larger issues afoot."
Pete Prisco went straight at the two biggest issues on the roster, saying: "The defense is a mess right now and they don't do enough on offense. At some point, they have to play rookie Carson Beck at quarterback."
Josh Kendall and Chad Graff focused on how far this team has fallen since that first Sunday, saying: "That season-opening win feels like ancient history. They’ve lost four straight games and surrendered 30 or more points in all four of them. At least they got a second-round pick back for Marvin Harrison Jr."
Arizona’s defense has been the clearest disaster. Josh Weinfuss laid out the numbers: the Cardinals are allowing a league-high 32.4 points per game, own the NFL’s second-worst point differential at minus-54, and are getting carved up through the air. They’re giving up a league-worst 8.5 net yards per attempt, 236.8 passing yards per game, and opposing quarterbacks are scoring touchdowns on 10.1% of their throws, the highest rate in the league.
Nick Shook’s ranking drop was the steepest of the bunch, with Arizona tumbling five spots. He argued the Cardinals had a chance to feed off a vulnerable Lions defense, but never came close after the opening stretch.
Shook wrote that Arizona "scored once, then went completely quiet, reducing its offense to a chuck-and-pray approach on third-and-long and completely eliminating Jeremiyah Love from the game plan because of the score difference. With all due respect to Jacoby Brissett, you’re not going to win many games when he’s averaging 40 throws per outing."
Frank Schwab also circled back to Marvin Harrison Jr. and the trade that sent him out, saying: "Trading Marvin Harrison Jr. was best for everyone involved, but let's not celebrate the Cardinals too much for getting a second-round pick back in a trade with the Texans. Arizona got very little out of the fourth overall pick in a loaded 2024 NFL Draft.
That's horrendous, even if the Cardinals recouped some value. As Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic pointed out , the Cardinals have already moved on from four of the last six players they drafted in the top 10 overall: Josh Rosen, Kyler Murray , Isaiah Simmons and Harrison."
There is still a path to change at quarterback, with Beck mentioned as a possibility and Gardner Minshew also a name in the mix before that. But the bigger problem for Arizona is more obvious than the personnel shuffle under center. The defense has been getting hammered, the offense has stalled, and the Cardinals are staring at another week near the bottom of the league’s power structure.
In Other News...
Cardinals Tryout Move Could Signal Help At A Position Of Need
The Cardinals continued taking a broad look at their personnel options by bringing in eight players for tryouts, a routine move that can serve both as a database refresh and a chance to spot a fit at a position of need. Among the group was offensive guard Jamaree Salyer, which is the sort of name that naturally draws attention when a team is still sorting through ways to shore up the line.
Arizona also looked at quarterback Conner Bazelak, linebackers Bradyn Swinson and Riley Wilson, and four wide receivers, underscoring that this was more than a single-position check-in. Still, the presence of Salyer in the workout raises the more interesting question for the Cardinals: whether the tryout was just exploratory, or the first step toward adding a lineman who could factor into the roster picture sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]
Marvin Harrison Jr. Trade Just Reignited A Cardinals Value Debate
Marvin Harrison Jr.s move out of Arizona did more than change the Cardinals receiver room - it reopened a familiar front-office question about what the market really looks like for a talented player when production has been uneven. Around the league, multiple teams had come to believe Harrisons trade value had slipped because of inconsistent performance, which made his availability notable even before any deal was finalized.
The Kansas City Chiefs were among the clubs watching the wider receiver market, especially with injuries hitting Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice, but they never seriously moved on Harrison. Instead, Houston stepped in and made the deal with Arizona, sending second- and sixth-round picks to the Cardinals and getting Harrison plus a 2027 seventh-round pick back, a return that now sits at the center of the value debate. [Read more 🡒]
Marvin Harrison Jr. Has Cardinals Fans Watching One Painful Texans Storyline
Marvin Harrison Jr. is already back in the AFC South spotlight, and this time the conversation around him has shifted from Arizona to Houston. The former Cardinals wide receiver was dealt to the Texans in a move that sent future draft capital back to Arizona, giving Houston a proven playmaker and giving Cardinals fans another reminder of how quickly a roster can change around a young receiver.
DeMeco Ryans said Harrison will be on the field Sunday against the Jaguars, setting up an immediate reunion with former college quarterback C.J. Stroud. For Arizona, it is the kind of transaction that lingers beyond the transaction itself, because the value of moving a talent like Harrison is not measured only by what comes back right away, but by what those future picks can turn into later. [Read more 🡒]