Why 2025 Isn't Playoffs-or-Bust for Arizona Cardinals

Jonathan Gannon has the Arizona Cardinals trending in a dramatic upward direction right now. When the former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator took charge of the team in 2023, he was facing a complete rebuild save for a handful of pieces.

To no surprise, the team struggled in its first year - especially since Kyler Murray missed the first half of the season recovering from a previous knee injury.

In year two, the hope was Gannon’s Cardinals would show improvement and leave a positive impact on fans no matter how many games they won.

It was true then, and it’s still true now. However, the success Arizona had was far more than we could’ve anticipated.

Playoff Hype Surrounds Arizona Cardinals

Rather than show small signs of improvement, the Cardinals came out swinging and held control of the NFC West crown around the midway point of the season. The second half of the year wasn’t kind as they fell apart, but that’s a disservice to how they started the year.

It’s more than fair to say that they far exceeded their year two expectations. Not a single person is complaining about that, of course. But as you would imagine, there are now higher expectations of this team — one that had control of its own destiny to the postseason, mind you.

And now our question becomes more than just what are fair expectations now, fans are asking if 2025 is “playoffs or bust” for the Cardinals.

Is this fair to ask? Is this realistic to believe? It’s up to your perspective.

After seeing how quickly the attitude and play change in just two years under Jonathan Gannon, it’s valid to be excited. Then you see the way they attacked the offseason to bolster a lackluster defense and it makes fans restless to see this team in action.

That may cause fans to feel like missing the playoffs would be a failure of a season. But, there’s still another side to this coin.

On the flip side, the offense doomed the Cardinals just as much and sometimes more during their second half collapse. That unit receives almost zero attention, and that’s not an exaggeration.

The only starter that’s changing is at right guard with Will Hernandez still a free agent, however he missed a lot of time last year and his backup, Isaiah Adams, is in line to start. Outside of that, not much is different. Drew Petzing is back to call the plays, too, so it truly is about 95% identical.

Unless this defense becomes historically dominant, the Cardinals will struggle to win games if the offense doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. And when you can’t win games in multiple ways, you won’t get very far.

Why 2025 Isn't Postseason-or-Bust for Arizona Cardinals

Honestly, 2025 feels like much more of a “prove it” season for individuals like Murray and Petzing rather than a somewhat “all or nothing” year for Gannon.

Reminder: This team is in a rebuild phase and Gannon exceeded expectations for where most teams find themselves in year two of a similar situation. That’s awesome, no debate, but that doesn’t mean that the expectations suddenly skyrocket.

The classic saying is that, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and that means we need to give Gannon the time he needs. We can’t suddenly accelerate the clock.

2025 shouldn’t be “playoffs or bust,” but it’s understandable why fans are at that point. I believe in the Cardinals to make that push to January football again, but if they don’t - that’s understandable.

To put it simply, it is far, far too early to be assigning such massive ultimatums.

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