These 3 Arizona Cardinals Will Determine Offseason Success

The Arizona Cardinals have invested significant capital — both draft and financial — into revamping their roster and providing head coach Jonathan Gannon with enough talent to contend.

Whether or not that endeavor will be successful in the long run remains to be seen, but some newcomers' performances will weigh more heavily than other when it comes to evaluating GM Monti Ossenfort's offseason moves.

3 Arizona Cardinals Indicate Offseason Success

The Cardinals' level of success in 2025 will obviously come down to record, and hopefully a playoff berth. Ultimately, it's winning that matters the most in the NFL.

But when it comes to evaluating an offseason, it's also applicable to break down the moves into individual performances and how well a unit plays, rather than simply looking at win-loss.

These three Cardinals' success will likely indicate how well the 2025 offseason was engineered.

1: Arizona Cardinals OLB Josh Sweat

Sweat's performance is important, given the fact that the Cardinals spent the most amount of resources on signing him to a four-year, $76.4 million contract.

It's not necessarily an abject failure if Sweat doesn't record double-digit sacks or doesn't look to be carrying the entire pass rush load — he was brought in to raise the floor of the front seven and add some pressure off the edge, not rescue Arizona's defense.

But still, with that much money sunk into one free agent, the Cardinals will need at least some modicum of return, even if he doesn't look like Myles Garrett defensively.

2: Arizona Cardinals CB Will Johnson

Considering Arizona was able to land Johnson in the second round, rather than having to spend the 16th overall pick on him, the pressure is somewhat lower on the Michigan product.

Still, the Cardinals need Johnson to at least look like he deserves to be starting on day one. Of their entire draft class, Johnson may be the most bust-proof, but he'll need to dispel any worry about his health (though he and the organization both seem positively aligned in their outlook on his knee issue).

Arizona doesn't need Johnson to rack up interceptions necessarily, but how well he can match up at the NFL level will be important.

3: Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr.

The Cardinals opted not to put any resources into developing their offense. They sent a message (intentional or not) that the offensive talent should be enough to get the job done.

Harrison shoulders much of that pressure. He'll need to show that he and QB Kyler Murray can get on the same page, and that he's taken a step forward in year two.

While his rookie season was anything but a failure, he needs to emerge as a true No. 1 threat in the passing game to justify Ossenfort's decision to leave the rest of the offense alone.

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