Cardinals Got Screwed by NFL Schedule

We’re heading into year three of the Jonathan Gannon era of Arizona Cardinals football, and expectations have been raised substantially from what they normally would’ve been.

Gannon went 4-13 in his debut season in the desert — we should’ve expected as much. But then he went 8–9 last season and was contending for the playoffs for the first half of the season. No one saw that coming.

Now with an offseason where the Cardinals were able to make as many moves as they did to improve the defensive side of the football — the undeniable biggest weakness of the team — many more fans are excited about the potential of a playoff run.

Then, we saw the Cardinals' 2025 schedule released.

Six games would be in division with the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. It’s a great division that will push the team, but they are winnable games if the roster successfully takes a step forward.

The Cardinals are set to play both the AFC/NFC South divisions. Each only had a single playoff team a year ago (The Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) with the other three teams finishing with a losing record, respectively.

Other games feature the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers. Cincinnati missed the playoffs despite a winning record. Dallas had a down year that has led to a head coaching change while Green Bay made the playoffs as the third-best team in the NFC North.

Looking at the schedule as a whole, Arizona is set to play a lot of bad football teams. The Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars all made selections in the top 10 of this year‘s draft.

The Falcons, Colts, and Cowboys also had losing records, and the division rival Niners finished beneath Arizona in the NFC West last season.

That gives the Cardinals a total seven out of division games with teams fresh off a losing record to go along with two more games against San Francisco.

All of those teams finished behind the Cardinals in the final league standings, too, for what it’s worth.

On paper, that should set Arizona up for great success and help make the playoff push that they have assigned for themselves.

Unfortunately, the NFL schedule makers didn’t feel like holding up their end of the bargain and schemed the Cardinals schedule to have several brutal points in the season.

That's frustrating, putting it politely.

I have several issues with the way the schedule was put together, but none more so than the start and end of the year. Arizona opens this season on the road against the Saints. Considering New Orleans is assumed to be amongst the worst teams in the league in 2025, it’s nonetheless a road game for Arizona to open this season.

It always sucks to open the year on the road, but it’s even more frustrating to end your season on the road. The Cards were handed that “luxury” and delivered an extra slap in the face by finishing the season on the road against Cincinnati followed by a trip to Los Angeles.

How does that happen? And how is that fair to anyone?

It doesn’t stop there — not even close, because the last month and a half of the season features road games. Four of the last six games of the season are on the road. Two of those games are against playoff teams with another against the Bengals - who finished with a winning record.

Perhaps there are some fans that as a blessing, but I for one believe it is entirely unfair and an oversight at best by the schedule makers.

In totality, Arizona starts the season with three of seven games on the road, and ends the season with four of six games on the road. Laughable.

If there’s even one thing that I can take solace from this schedule, the opening to the season gives the team it’s best opportunity to make a statement. Three of their first seven games are against non-playoff teams with losing records from last season.

That doesn’t include the 49ers, who finished behind the Cardinals with a losing record a season ago. But speaking of San Francisco, two of the aforementioned first seven games are division matchups. And the final game before the bye week is against a Green Bay Packers team who went to the postseason, but Arizona gets to host them.

If we were to give the Cardinals a best case scenario — and I mean absolute best case scenario — they could start the season with a 5–2 record. Give Arizona four wins against franchises who finished behind Arizona last season, one of which is an in-division game. We'll also give them a home win over Green Bay to give them an early season statement victory.

That kind of start could motivate this team for the remainder of a brutal schedule - but we saw something similar last year that ended with complete collapse.

As a whole, the Cardinals got the short end of the stick with what was supposed to be one of the more favorable schedules in the league based off opponent winning percentage.

It just goes to show that the way your schedule stacks up is more pivotal than team to play.

2025 will be quite the test for Gannon and his Cardinals.