Insider Makes Bold Cardinals Prediction

The Arizona Cardinals are getting their schedule together for the upcoming season, where the team hopes to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

The team starts out the season facing six teams that didn't make the playoffs last season, and that should help the Cardinals get off on the right foot to begin the year.

ESPN insider Josh Weinfuss believes the Cardinals could have a strong record after the first third of the season.

"The Cardinals will start the season 4-2, if not 5-1, and take early control of their playoff destiny. The new-look defense will click early and live up to the hype created by a deep draft and busy free agency," Weinfuss wrote.

"The schedule makers at the NFL's league office weren't necessarily kind to the Cardinals, but they also weren't espeically mean to them, either. There are stretches of winnable games sprinkled throughout the schedule, along with some season-defining stretches. Overall, Arizona has a schedule that could lead it to the playoffs."

The biggest winnable stretch is at the beginning of the season, and the Cardinals will need to take advantage, because the last six games will be arguably the toughest.

In the final six games, the Cardinals face five teams that ended up with winning records last season, including two against the reigning NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams. The only team that didn't achieve a winning record that appears in the final six weeks is the Atlanta Falcons, who finished 8-9 a year ago.

If the Cardinals don't end up with at least four wins in the first six weeks, it could come back to bite them by the end of the season, so Arizona cannot look at its first few games as preseason, because those wins will count massively by season's end.