NFC West Offenses 1st Quarter of 2025 Season Grades: Cardinals' Analysis with help from Kurt Warner
by Walter Mitchell
Arizona Cardinals
While OC Drew Petzing, when asked if the offense has been missing Klayton Adams said, "no", it is abundantly clear that they do. Without Adams the Cardinals have lost their identity as a relentless, smashmouth run-heavy "wear you down" offense. In light of the demise of the running game and the brutal fact that the soul animal and bell bow of that facet of the offense, James Conner, has been lost for the season with a lower foot injury, Petzing has had no other choice but to place more emphasis on the passing game that at a mere 185.5 yards per game is ranked 28th in the NFL. Passing for the Cardinals, other than throwing to TE Trey McBride has been so conservative that Kyler Murray's average yards per attempt is a paltry 5.7 which also ranks #28 in the NFL.
Despite drafting a WR at #4 a year ago in Marvin Harrison Jr. and trying to assimilate him into their run-heavy 12 and 13 personnel packages with uneven results thus far, Monti Ossenfort doubled down on Petzing's style of offense by selecting RB Trey Benson, G Isaiah Adams and TE Tip Reiman in Round 3. The problem is that Benson may not be ready to assume the James Conner bell cow role (and was missing from practice yesterday), Adams has struggled so much at RG that he has the lowest PFF grade on the team and one of the worst in the NFL and Reiman is not going to help the team's passing game, which now has to start proving its mettle.
Good news is --- Cardinals' rank #4 in pass blocking. And the Cardinals' passing game finally came to life in the 4th quarter last Thursday night.
Drew Petizing will likely use a committee of RBs to assume a more prominent role in the passing game, either in pass protection or on circle, flare, screen, wheel and out routes into more open spaces than what they might typically get trying to run the ball with the worst run blocking line in the NFC West and league-wide at #28. Throwing to RBs, particularly on checkdowns has been Kyler Murray's penchant and one of the main reasons why his average yards per attempt is 5.7.
The gist is, in order to try to win games the Cardinals are going to have to improve their passing game approach. Plus, they have to do everything they can to get more out of the running game, which also happens to be the key to the Cardinals' play-action success. Calling a flea flicker, for example, was ill-advised because defenses are not respecting the running game the way they have for the past two years and are instead focusing on rushing the passer. But maybe if the Cardinals pass more often on first and second downs, they can create better blocking numbers in the running game when teams take a defender out of the box to help in pass coverage.
Kurt Warner posted a video analysis of the Cardinals' passing game struggles --- and it is likely going to take the kind of adjustments that Warner recommends in order to solve the inconsistencies and deficiencies of the current schemes.
Click here:
Please tell us what you think of Kurt Warner's suggestions. I think the way Kurt Warner always had "hot" routes ready for any and every kind of blitz package can help Kyler Murray avoid having to run away from blitz looks in a panic when he doesn't really need to, like he did on 3rd down during the first series of the game versus the Seahawks, which the Seahawks were able to get exactly what they wanted out of their pre-snap A gap blitz storm ruse.
7 seasons and KM still has little pocket awareness and hasn't developed a 6th sense to step away or shift around and anticipate the pass rush to buy time in the pocket. As a result he relies on his legs to escape the pocket prematurely instead of letting plays develop, hindering deeper passes. Instead of trusting the play design to develop, he bails too fast, taking away chances for bigger conversions. a stronger focus on execution is needed.
ReplyDeleteThere are open receivers but poor execution. Does this team practice?
The OL all too frequent breakdowns require communication by receiver and QB and we have little chemistry when KM scrambles and needs his WRs to adjust. KM has an MFL worthy connection and chemistry with McBride, why not his WRs?
You can't run the ball when no defense respects your downfield passing attack. Make em pay with a downfield pass or two to get them off the line to stuff the run.
Hernandez cannot get back fast enough and Williams is terrible!
Very winnable home game this week against a team on a 10 loss roll. We better see a complete game by the Cards after a mini bye. If they lose...
Lets pray they don't lose to Titans! I'm more in boat of coaching evaluations and possible upgrades at this point these coaches have not been getting it done. Outside Klayton Adams (no longer with team) & Rodgers (ST) no coach has gotten more from their players. We needed a 'consultant' 3yrs ago with least experienced coaching staff in NFL. Instead we got the cheap version with no player development.
DeleteReally liked Kurts' analysis. Showing that there are multiple 'details' the Cardinals coaching staff and athletes are missing in-game-situation. That in my opinion reflects a lack of detailed plan, discipline & focus that is being practiced. So 'coaching' in a nutshell... THIS directly coorelates to the lack of experience by Petzing and his assistant coaches being able to know and teach the details of (a) route-running (b) reading defense (c) timing and (d) protections. Too often one or more of these aspects are just out-of-sync in passing game. Which also explains why our pass pro can be rated high and pass game rated low... The machines are out of sync with one another.
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