Arizona Cardinals' Biggest Challenge Revealed

The Arizona Cardinals looked like a team on a mission in their encouraging preseason win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.

The depth was on full display, the defense looked good, and the team overcame a brutal start to put together a relatively clean performance across the board.

With the exception of some of the obvious mistakes, there's reason to be cautiously optimistic about both sides of the ball heading into the 2025 season.

But that doesn't mean there won't be some obstacles to overcome. According to one outlet, the Cardinals may be facing a major challenge in the upcoming regular season.

Arizona Cardinals' Biggest Challenge Revealed

CBS Sports' Jared Dubin took a look at each NFL team, diving into what each team's biggest challenge will be this year.

The Cardinals' entry was one that many fans will be familiar with: passing game creativity.

"The Cardinals have been able to run the ball fairly successfully during the Jonathan Gannon era. James Conner has been highly effective and an undermanned offensive line has been able to clear the way for him with bigger holes than expected," Dubin wrote.

"With [offensive line coach] Klayton Adams now in Dallas, things could get a bit more difficult on that front, which means the passing game needs to step up.

"The Cardinals were wildly uncreative with their usage of Marvin Harrison Jr. last year and it turned the aerial attack into "Marvin please win 50-50 balls" or "Trey McBride, go do stuff." That can't happen again. Drew Petzing and Co. need better answers this year," Dubin writes.

Ultimately, Harrison's somewhat underhwleming 2024 season was a product of multiple factors. There's blame to go around, but Arizona's coaching staff has to bear their share of the responsibility.

Petzing can scheme up the run game with the best. Arizona's scripted, well-executed drives are tough to stop. But Harrison needs to be utilized according to his own strengths, not forced into the format of Petzing's scheme.

Harrison also needs to be more physical and use his hands more than his body. In his limited preseason action, he appears to have made progress in that area.

Kyler Murray also needs to up his accuracy when throwing to Harrison, and questions are already swirling around Arizona's franchise QB.

But ultimately, the Cardinals' offense bordered on predictable at times in 2024. That needs to change in all facets, but especially through the air.

Arizona Cardinals Latest News