The Athletic Isn't Confident in Cardinals Moving Forward

The Cardinals, sitting at 2-3, don't offer much hope down the stretch of the schedule according to The Athletic.

The Arizona Cardinals have only played five games, but it appears many people are already willing to throw in the towel on the season. 

The Athletic took a look at every sub-.500 team in the league and separated them in categories.

Part of that "just breathe" category were the Rams and Bengals, as both teams are off to slow starts after their Super Bowl appearance. 

In the "Fixable, but there's danger" category are the Browns, Saints, Seahawks, Broncos, Patriots, Jaguars and Falcons. 

"Next year looks more fun" features the Texans, Raiders, Steelers and Bears. 

In the final group, titled, "Is everything OK?" land the Cardinals along with the Panthers and Lions. 

Here's what Nick Baumgardner said of Arizona's placement on the tiers:

"It has been an interesting start to Year 3 of an interesting tenure for Kliff Kingsbury. Is 'interesting' the right word?," asked Nick Baumgardner.

"Take the Cardinals’ first game of this season, for example: Kansas City ran 66 plays for 488 yards; Arizona ran 63 plays for 282 yards. Two weeks later, Kingsbury’s offense ran 81 plays and mustered just 12 points in a loss to the Rams. It keeps happening because Kingsbury’s offenses in Arizona has become one that attacks almost strictly horizontally.

"The Cardinals are averaging just 4.9 yards per play, and QB Kyler Murray is last amongst full-time starters in yards per attempt (5.8) and second-to-last in average depth of target (6.6). The Cardinals’ pressure numbers are about middle of the pack league-wide, which means a lot of the issues are on the offense’s desire to play incredibly fast. That almost never helps a defense with woeful coverage issues. Arizona also happens to range from bad to OK against the run.

"Arizona’s two wins have come over other teams on this list (Las Vegas and Carolina). It’s not going to get any easier from here."

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