ESPN's Team Rankings By Position Groups, Cardinals #31 Overall
By Walter Mitchell
Here are the ranking that ESPN gave the Cardinals at each position group:
QB: 32
Not sold on Jacoby Brissett, obviously, despite his brilliance with Trey McBride and Michale Wilson and his finishing #14 in QB passer ratings in 2025. Plus, most passing yards per game in his 12 starts,
RB: 6
They are sold on Jeremiyah Love. Good to see.
WR: 20
Not sold on Marvin Harrison Jr. or the depth.
TE: 2
Sold on Trey McBride. Raiders at #1 because they have two TE1s in Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer.
OL: 16
Sold on left side and center, not sold on right side.
DI: 22
Sold on Walter Nolen. Not sold on Darius Robinson.
ED: 27
Sold on Josh Sweat. Not sold on any9one else.
LB: 30
Not sold on Mack Wilson Sr. or any player here.
CB: 31
Not sold on Will Johnson, Denzel Burke and Garrett Williams. While Monti has drafted 7 CBs in 4 years, ESPN is not sold on any one of them, and the team still lacks a slot CB who can cover man-to-man on the likes of JSN, Puka and CMC.
S: 26
No longer sold on Budda Baker and not sold on Andrew Wingard and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson.
Overall: 31
Only the Dolphins are ranked lower.
Where I disagree:
QB I believe Jacoby Brissett has the leadership, toughness and passing acumen to lead Mike LaFleur's offense.
WR This is the most talented and deepest WR group the Cardinals have had in quite some time.
LB with Cody Simon and Jack Gibbens as starters
S I think Budda is going to ball big-time; Andrew Wingard is a lot better than he gets credit for and if Rabbit steps up and mans the slot, this group could be the strength of the defense.
What are your thoughts?
Brissett too low but starting QBs across the League, right now, are so damn good, I have a hard time putting him above middle of the pack at my most generous
ReplyDeleteWR-got ours top 12 IF Marv meets expectations.
The rest I agree with ESPN but would put our safety room 21.
Just not enough talent especially at key positions after a multi season rebuild. Young team to develop- let’s hope this iteration of coaches can build us some effective keepers
Anyone disheartened by this-DO NOT check out the rankings of the rest of the NFCW- keep off the ledge
ReplyDeleteBrissett is too low, but I also don't think he's the 16th best QB in the NFL as per his passer rating. If we're going strictly by that then Mac Jones is 13th best and Drake Maye in his 2nd season was by far the best QB in the NFL. I don't think anyone agrees with that.
ReplyDeleteThe RB ranking isn't purely a statement about Love but also about the depth. Allgeier is among the best RB2s in the league and Connor is probably the best RB3 and between Benson, Bam and Kiner the deep bench is elite as well.
On safety, the problem with Budda is that he's a tackle machine but he's really bad in pass coverage, with a 35.7 pass coverage grade per PFF last season, good for 95th out of 98 safeties. His tackling is nice and also necessary because the rest of the Cardinals defense is so bad at tackling, but ask yourself, if he was on a team with good tackling, would he bring nearly as much value? He'd be a safety with bad pass coverage skills who doesn't get nearly as many tackles because the rest of the defense is actually doing their jobs.