Arizona Cardinals Land Perfectly in NFL Rankings

The 2025 NFL season is so close that we can almost taste it. That means everybody and their mother will be posting their own power rankings for all 32 teams. Many fans know where their team likely stands as either bottom dwellers or title contenders, but there's a mixed group in the middle with fan bases eager to defend their team and their placement in the rankings.

Arizona Cardinals fans find themselves in that category this season after an offseason loading up to build off last year's surprising success. The Cardinals went from four wins to eight in a calendar season and were contending for the playoffs for most of the year. The team seemingly got better this offseason, and it has fans in an excited frenzy.

Naturally, those in the desert will be searching high and low for NFL power rankings that show the team's placement so they can decide if it's fair or not. Ralph Vacchiano from Fox Sports put his own together and placed the Cardinals inside the top half of the league. According to Vacchiano, the Arizona Cardinals are the 14th best team in the NFL.

To defend his ranking, Vacchiano highlighted the Cardinals' busy offseason as the backbone to his opinion of the team:

"They spent a lot on fixing their defense this offseason, adding Calais Campbell, Dalvin Tomlinson, Akeem Davis-Gaither and Josh Sweat to their front seven in free agency, and then drafting lineman Walter Nolen and corner Will Johnson in the first two rounds. But they didn’t touch an offense that ranked 11th and was maddeningly inconsistent last season. They think they’ve got enough in their big three of quarterback Kyler Murray, receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and running back James Conner. They might be right."

We all know the insane amount of assets the Cardinals have invested into their defense. Under a great coaching staff with plenty of young talent and now established veterans, Arizona could see its defense take a huge step forward. In theory, the Cardinals' defense can become good enough to win games based on talent and play style rather than relying solely on scheme. If that comes to fruition, the Cardinals defense can play ball.

Alternatively, we've been critical about the team's refusal to invest hardly anything into the offense. As Vacchiano stated, the Cardinals clearly think they have enough with Murray, Harrison, and Conner. He didn't add McBride to the equation, but when you do, you can see how the structure of this group could be enough to get them over the hump.

The Cardinals need some things to go their way this year that are out of their control, but they did all the right things to keep what is inside their control within reach -- at least defensively.

Compared to the rest of the league, 14 feels like a good spot for Arizona. The Cardinals were highly competitive last season and only got better this offseason. The offense should be no worse than it was a year ago, and that unit still finished in the top half of the league. Meanwhile, a feisty defense got the reinforcements it needed to keep up.

Ranked 14th is a perfect display of respect to what Arizona did and accomplished while also requiring them to do some more proving. I think Vacchiano absolutely nailed this.