The 2021 season is complete with the Los Angeles Rams having won the Super Bowl. Now we look ahead to the 2022 season. Free agency has not yet begun and the NFL draft has not taken place, but Touchdown Wire’s Nick Wojton already has put together new power rankings with an eye looking forward to the 2022 season.
Essentially, how do NFL teams look comparatively moving forward, even before the new league year begins?
The Arizona Cardinals, who started the season 7-0 and finished 11-6 and then lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual champions, come in at No. 10 in the way-too-early rankings.
An 11-6 record, yes, but the Cardinals ended last year on a big downhill ride. Few in Arizona need reminding of that. To quell those worries, the team needs to make sure QB Kyler Murray is all in after the weird start he has had to the offseason. A next step might be improving the secondary in the desert.
If Murray is playing the way he did most of the season, the Cardinals should be perennial playoff contenders and put them in play for the NFC West lead, which makes this ranking reasonable.
However, this offseason brings many questions. They have a lot of holes to fill on their roster. Six of their key offensive skill players from 2021 are scheduled to hit free agency next month. They are over the salary cap for 2022.
That will get resolved before free agency begins, but this is an optimistic view of a team that was the best in the league for half the season and then looked lost to end it.
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