Let's talk Arizona Cardinals
Defense
The secondary is a mixed bag. Peterson was considered a top corner, but was repeatedly picked on early last season before playing better in the latter half.
Offense
At RB, Ellington looked explosive his rookie year, but averaged just 3.3 YPC last year and was bottled up in preseason. Chris Johnson is a big play threat but is a journeyman at this point in his career.
Last year Patrick Peterson struggled early in the year with an unknown health issue. Turns out he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and was working to get it under control. He was able to control it by changing his diet and started to return to form in the second half of the season. He has it completely under control now without having to take any meds.
As for Andre Ellington, he was an extremely explosive player his rookie year. Then last year he split a tendon in his left foot during the preseason and lost that explosion we saw the previous year. He played about 10 games on that bum foot and wasn't very effective before going onto season ending IR for a hernia. He is now back to 100% as can be seen here during the preseason game against the chiefs:
Highlight: Andre Ellington shows off his speed
They lost a lot from what was a pretty good front 7 last year. Dan Williams and Dockett from the line. Dansby and Daryl Williams from the LB's. Weatherspoon is good, but not great. I think their LB"s look weak. Their secondary is nice, I like those 3 safeties a lot.
Last year Dockett went down with a season ending ACL during training camp. He never played a down last year and the Cardinals had success without him. In fact Dockett was recently cut by the 49ers.
Daryl
Washington (caught smoking pot again a little over a year ago) was suspended for the entire season last year and still hasn't been reinstated. Clearly he hasn't met the NFLs requirements as the suspension hasn't been lifted. He is a force at ILB and has been suspended for 20 out of the last 32 games and counting.
Dan Williams is the one key player from last year who the Cardinals lost to FA. He is a massive run stuffer but was more of a rotational guy who typically only played about 30-40% of the defensive snaps. Still the Cardinals have a very deep DL and will rotate players constantly to keep them fresh. Only Calais Campbell stays on the field all game.
I agree with you though that the one weak spot on this defense is the LB corp. With the biggest weakness being the ability to cover good TEs.
99% sure they will be without Floyd. He had surgery on 3 fingers.
Floyd dislocated 3 of his fingers on his left hand and they were popping out of his palm. It was a gruesome injury!
:throwup:
He had surgery to repair his hand and returned to practice this week. He has been keeping in shape while his hand has healed and just started catching passes again this weeked. WR is the deepest position on the Cardinals so I don't think they will risk Floyd in this matchup.
Fitzgerald is still a force with his size, experience and still has some of the best hands in the league. John Brown is a burner and an emerging star. He has been uncoverable all preseason. The Cardinals have 2 more WRs who can take the top off a defense. Britton Golden and rookie JJ Nelson. JJ Nelson was the fastest player at the combine this year (Faster than John Brown) and has flashed during the preseason with some big catches. He also looks like a rookie at times and hasn't been on the same page as Palmer.
Here is a catch during the preseason that shows JJ Nelson's break away speed:
http://www.azcardinals.com/videos/v...son-deep/524cc297-acd8-491b-83f1-2fa5f5c6fb92
Jaron Brown is a reliabe pass catcher who is in his thrid year and always seems to make key third down catches that move the chains.
When the Cardinals go 4 or 5 WRs they can be very dangerous even without Floyd. Throw in a healthy Andre Ellington out of the backfield and you have a ton of speed on offense.
The only question mark is the TE position where injuries have kept the starters off of the field all preseason.