The Arizona Cardinals are down to the final stretch before Week 1, and the real questions are no longer about camp or preseason form. They’re about what this team actually looks like when the games start counting at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Chargers.
A few of the biggest unknowns sit right on the surface. Jeremiyah Love is expected by head coach Mike LaFleur to play in Week 1, but the bigger issue is how much he can give after the high ankle sprain he suffered in preseason action.
He hasn’t practiced since, so even if he’s active, the Cardinals still have to figure out how close he is to full strength. At his best, Love brings big-play juice as both a runner and a receiver.
Tyler Allgeier can handle the job if needed, but the offense changes when Love is on the field.
There’s also the matter of Jac Brissett and whether he’s fully up to speed in LaFleur’s offense. Brissett spent the summer playing catch-up after his contract holdout kept him from getting the on-field work he needed.
The Cardinals weren’t concerned about his ability to absorb the system because of his experience around the league, but he still had to learn the specific offense LaFleur was installing in Arizona once the holdout ended in training camp. Whether Brissett is ready to run the full playbook right away could shape what the Cardinals are able to do offensively.
The passing game has its own set of questions, even with Michael Wilson coming off his deserved contract extension and Trey McBride established as a star at tight end. The biggest curiosity is Marvin Harrison Jr. and how he responds after an uneven first two years in the NFL.
LaFleur’s arrival added to the optimism because of his history with receiver development in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Harrison has the talent, and now the Cardinals want to see how he’s used in an offense expected to be friendly to receivers.
Up front, the Cardinals feel good about three spots on the offensive line - left tackle, left guard and center - but the right side remains unsettled. The team tried to address right guard by drafting Chase Bisontis in the second round, but an MCL injury will keep him out for most, if not all, of 2026.
That leaves Isaiah Adams with a clear path to start. At right tackle, Elijah Wilkinson arrived this offseason after a 2025 run with the Atlanta Falcons in which he led the team in sacks, pressures and penalties.
He fits the Cardinals’ run game plan, but the question is whether he can hold up better in pass protection. If Adams and Wilkinson take a step forward, Arizona should be fine.
If they don’t, the offense could be forced to adjust fast.
Josh Sweat is another name worth watching. He didn’t practice with the Cardinals until the week of their final preseason game because of a knee issue, and he’ll now have a few weeks between activation and the opener in Los Angeles to get back into game shape after missing all of OTAs, mandatory minicamp and training camp.
The team has insisted the knee is not a concern, but the real question is conditioning. Can he handle a full workload, or will he need to be managed early?
Arizona needs him to help carry the sack load, so a snap count would raise an obvious issue.
Linebacker is still unsettled as well. The spot next to Mack Wilson Sr. doesn’t appear to have a clear winner, with Cody Simon and Jack Gibbens both in the mix.
The Cardinals seem prepared to use them in different situations, with Gibbens leaning toward pass coverage work and Simon potentially handling early run downs. That could continue until one of them separates from the pack, or until Arizona simply settles into a rotation.
Then there’s the defense as a whole, and that may be the biggest question of all. Nick Rallis enters his fourth season as defensive coordinator after the Cardinals couldn’t find another replacement and kept him in place.
Jonathan Gannon is gone, LaFleur’s background is on offense, and Rallis has the room to himself now. But the unit needs to look different.
Arizona was one of the league’s worst defenses last season, injuries or not, and the Cardinals can’t just bring back the same structure and expect a different result.
That last issue may end up deciding everything about the Cardinals’ season.
In Other News...
Cardinals Captain Choices Just Revealed A New Locker Room Reality
The Cardinals have settled on their leadership group for the 2026 regular season, with players casting the votes that put Jacoby Brissett, Hjalte Froholdt, Mack Wilson, Budda Baker and Casey Kreiter in the captain roles. For a team trying to build a steadier identity inside the locker room, the choices offer a clear snapshot of who teammates trust to set the tone, handle the noise and keep things organized once the season starts.
Mike LaFleur pointed to the leadership qualities of the group after the announcement, underscoring how much weight the room placed on those selections. The mix of names also says something about where the Cardinals are trying to lean, with established voices and steady presences across different parts of the roster now tasked with carrying more than just their own assignments. [Read more 🡒]
Josh Sweat Could Become A Cardinals Pivot Point Fast
The Bears search for help up front has added another name to the conversation, and it comes with a familiar Arizona angle. Josh Sweat has surfaced as a possible trade target if Chicago decides to bolster its pass rush before the deadline, with the idea of a conditional 2027 fourth-round pick attached to the discussion. For the Cardinals, it is the kind of rumor that naturally draws attention because Sweat sits right in the middle of a defense trying to stay relevant in a competitive NFC race.
For now, Arizona is not looking to move him. Still, the question around Sweat is less about whether he would help a contender and more about how long the Cardinals can afford to treat him as off-limits if their own season starts to tilt. Trade chatter at this point in the calendar tends to expose where a team is headed, and if Arizonas outlook changes, Sweat could become one of the clearest pivot points on the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Camp Has One Encouraging Sign Fans Still Need To Monitor
Mike LaFleur liked enough of what he saw from his wide receiver room to single it out during camp, and for an offense that spent much of the offseason under a microscope, that kind of early positivity matters. Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. drew favorable mention as well, while the coaching staff earned a nod for helping the group settle in, giving Arizona at least one encouraging checkpoint as the preseason runway keeps shortening.
The more practical question for the Cardinals is how quickly the rest of the offense catches up, especially with Jeremiyah Love still working back from a high-ankle sprain. Camp praise is useful, but it only goes so far if the pieces around that receiver group remain in flux, which is why the next stretch of practices will tell a lot about whether this early confidence turns into something sturdier. [Read more 🡒]