Arizona Cardinals Disrespected in Latest Power Rankings

The Arizona Cardinals, unsurprisingly, aren't being given a ton of national love after a rough week two preseason loss to the Denver Broncos.

The Cardinals are no strangers to being underestimated. Perhaps local media is overly high on this team, but it does seem that year three of Jonathan Gannon and co. is the prime time for Arizona to see their largest taste of success since the Bruce Arians era.

In a recent article from ESPN, every NFL team was ranked in order from 1-32, with a look at who is under the most pressure in each organization.

Arizona Cardinals Given Low Power Ranking

According to the article, and ESPN's Josh Weinfuss, the Cardinals are only being ranked 22 out of 32, despite an offseason's worth of additions.

And according to Weinfuss, the person under the most pressure in the upcoming season is none other than GM Monti Ossenfort, the very man who's rebuilt this team and its roster.

"Entering his third season with the Cardinals, Ossenfort completed his three-year rebuild of the roster. Now, it's time for that roster to win.

"He rebuilt the defensive front but hardly touched the offense, a move that could be risky. If the defense doesn't live up to expectations or the offense has holes that he could've addressed, Ossenfort's seat will start warming up," Weinfuss wrote.

Regardless of whether or not Ossenfort is in danger of losing his job — it certainly doesn't feel like he is, barring catastrophic failure — the fact is the Cardinals do have some expectations about their results in 2025.

With a revamped defense, there's less room to make excuses for underperformance.

But Weinfuss is right about one thing. Ossenfort did not put resources into the offense. A great deal of faith is being placed in Marvin Harrison Jr., Kyler Murray and Drew Petzing to elevate an inconssitent air attack and help Arizona's offense take the next step.

Whether or not they can do that is unknown, but there's belief that this could be the most successful offensive season of the new era for the Cardinals.

But it will ultimately come down to execution, something that was severely lacking in their preseason loss on Saturday. Week three may not come with huge implications, but the Cardinals could use some confidence heading into week one of the regular season.

Regardless, Ossenfort has designed this team the way he and his coaches wanted. The results are yet to be seen, but there's cautious optimism that Arizona will be much better than a bottom-10 team.

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