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Cardinals struggles in preseason could be signs of things to come in 2025 season

Originally posted on Burn City Sports
By Tanner Tortorella | Last updated Aug 30, 2025 7:06 PM ET

GLENDALE – The Arizona Cardinals entered the preseason with plenty of hype ahead next season. The team doubled its win total from the past two years in 2024, going 8-9 and just falling short of a playoff berth. General manager Monti Ossenfort has seen the team’s potential and invested heavy money into the defense with Josh Sweat and Calais Campbell, while drafting six defensive depth pieces to raise the team’s ceiling.

However, the expectations for Arizona’s talent wasn’t meant by CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan during the preseason. The team went 2-1, with the starters playing limited reps. Despite that fact, Sullivan still wasn’t impressed by Cardinals play in the three preseason games.

Sullivan on Cardinals unimpressive preseason:

“Kyler Murray’s interception against the Chiefs in Week 1 of the preseason is sticking with me. The Cardinals quarterback simply couldn’t get the ball to his intended target, falling way short and into the arms of Jaden Hicks. Arizona has improved the roster this offseason and is a dark horse candidate in the NFC West, but it all hinges on Murray elevating. In the small window we saw him, that’s up for debate. Meanwhile, the top defense didn’t have the best summer, allowing opening drive touchdowns every week of the preseason. Grade: C”

Sullivan puts much of the blame on quarterback Kyler Murray regressing from last season. The 28-year-old did have good statistical numbers, outside of the one interception, but the turnover was very poor read by the seventh-year quarterback.

While some defensive starters, like Sweat and Campbell, didn’t play many snaps in the preseason, enough of them were present to bring up a concern about the defense’s integrity. Allowing opening drive touchdowns in every preseason game is a glaring concern about the philosophy of last year’s squad. The “bend, don’t break,” mantra help them improve from second-worst in 2023 to league average last season.

The Cardinals do have one of the easiest strength of schedules in the league and don’t play a playoff team from last year until Week 7. The easier start to the season could act as the team’s true preseason to help the new starters more Intune with the system in live-game reps.

This article first appeared on Burn City Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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