What will it take for the Arizona Cardinals to make the playoffs in 2024?

The Cardinals just spent January watching the playoffs from home… again. What will it take for that to change in 2024?

For the second straight year, and sixth time in seven years, the Arizona Cardinals were at home for the playoffs. Not at home like having a home playoff game, but at home as in watching from the couch. But hey, at least the Niners lost, right?

So what’ll it take to get this team back into the postseason for the first time since that beatdown at the hands of the Rams after the 2021 season? It’ll be a steep uphill climb for a team coming off a 4-13 season, but quick turnarounds happen all the time in today’s NFL. Case in point: Did anyone see the Houston Texans, coming off a 3-13-1 season, not only making the playoffs this year but winning a game? (Certainly not Monti Ossenfort, unfortunately.)

With that in mind, here is a quick list of five things that will need to happen for the Cardinals to make it back to the playoffs this season.

1. A Full, Healthy Season from Kyler Murray

With very few exceptions, you need an elite QB to get into the postseason. Sure, you could be last year’s Browns (one of the league’s best defenses and a resurgent Joe Flacco) or Steelers (Mike Tomlin teams just doesn’t have losing records) or the 2022 Giants (one of the all-time WTF? playoff teams), but, for the most part, you need a Pro Bowl–caliber QB at the helm. Kyler already has two Pro Bowls under his belt, and he seems fully recovered from his ACL injury. Now he’ll be able to get a full offseason in and should be able to recapture that Pro Bowl form. Him staying healthy and productive next season is the first step in challenging for a playoff berth.

2. (Way) More Production from the WRs

Step two is surrounding him with more talent at wide receiver. (We’ll get to the O-line in a minute.) Last season, the Cardinals had one of the least productive WR rooms in the league. Part of it was due to subpar QB play while Kyler was out, but Hollywood Brown was a massive disappointment (51/574/4 TDs, 11.3 YPC) in his walk year, and the team was never able to find a reliable third WR option behind rookie Michael Wilson (a pleasant surprise with a 38/565/3 TD, 14.9 YPC line). You have to figure Brown is gone, and Ossenfort will almost certainly take a WR with the team’s #4 overall pick, plus add another potential starter later in the draft or in free agency. Whatever he does with the position, the team needs much more production at WR to go along with blossoming stud TE Trey McBride and stalwart RB James Conner.

3. Fortifications Along the Trenches

The O-line actually held up pretty well this last year (the #4 rushing attack in the league, #19 in sacks against), but Ossenfort will need to add a starting tackle with D.J. Humphries likely out for the year with an ACL, and we need to add a long-term starter at LG as well. A stronger O-line combined with more talent at WR could really get this offense humming. But even more than O-line, Ossenfort needs to focus on fortifying the D-line, which was a glaring weak point in 2023. PFF grades should be taken with a grain of salt, but we had SIX members of the D-line rotation grade in the 30s/40s, two more hovering around 60, with only the anonymous Ray Lopez grading as anything close to average at 65. He basically needs to rebuild the entire line. That’s probably a multi-offseason job, but that unit HAS to be dramatically improved in 2024 for this team to improve enough to sniff the playoffs.

4. Rebuild the CB Room

Yep, that’s another position, along with WR and DL, that needs to be basically completely overhauled. The guy who graded the highest in 2023, Andre Chachere, was a waiver claim and a converted safety. The guy who played the most, Antonio Hamilton Sr., is a serviceable journeyman who wouldn’t be a top-2 CB for the majority of the teams in the league. None of the young guys (Garrett Williams, Kei’Trel Clark, Starling Thomas V, et. al) impressed or showed any consistency whatsoever. MAYBE one of those guys makes a leap, but it’s clear that Ossenfort needs to add at least two starting-caliber corners, if not three. Like D-line, that’s almost certainly not doable in just one offseason, but finding at least one long-term answer at CB is a must if this team is going to get to .500 or better.

5. Regression from Division Rivals

Finally, a (winless) 4^th-place finish in the NFC West isn’t going to cut it for this team to have a shot to make the playoffs. We’ll need to leapfrog at least one—if not two—of our division rivals to even be a factor. The Niners don’t seem to be going anywhere (even though they just axed a familiar face as DC), but can the Redbirds overtake the Rams or Seahawks in 2024? The Rams are coming off a playoff berth with a resurgent offense and scrappy defense, but all it would take is age or injury issues for Matthew Stafford for them to have another down year like 2022. And the SeaChickens will be breaking in a new, first-time coach and are coming off a down year themselves. If Geno Smith again fails to recapture his 2022 form and the new coach stumbles, the Cardinals could be the beneficiary.

Final Thoughts

A ton would have to go right for the Cardinals to make the playoffs, but it’s certainly possible in today’s NFL. If Ossenfort is able to get a healthy Kyler some WRs to throw to and strengthen the O-line, he could have another Pro Bowl–type season, which is key to getting into the playoff hunt. The defense should still be a problem, sure, but improvement at DL at CB could see the unit approach respectability instead of again being one of the worst in the league. And then we’d just need to hope for regression from division rivals (or other NFC would-be contenders). It’s asking a lot, but I’m telling you there’s a chance. Just ask the Texans.

Your turn, RotBers. Is it too early to be talking about the playoffs? (I mean, it’s February.) Or should fans be expecting results sooner rather than later? Vote in the poll and drop us a line in the comments.