Bruce Arians, a veteran of 25 NFL seasons as a coach but only one as a head coach and part of one as an acting head coach, either worked a miracle last season by leading the Arizona Cardinals to a 10-6 season or he really knows what he's doing. We're going with the latter. At this writing, he's 1-0 this season. It was Arians' rookie season with the Cards, a team that has struggled since the departure of famed quarterback Kurt Warner, he of two Super Bowl appearances, including a winning one in St. Louis and a losing one here following the 2008 season. To call the Cardinals dismal in the four years after Warner's departure is kind.
Then came the exit of Coach Ken Whisenhunt, who looked like a genius when Warner was around but sunk fast with a series of awful QBs. In came Arians, fresh off a 9-3 stint with the Indianapolis Colts while filling in for the ailing Chuck Pagano for the 2013 season. And it started off semi-bleak in Glendale, too. The Cards lost four of their first seven games and appeared headed for the NFL sewer. But Arians, a former college quarterback himself, got his veteran QB, Carson Palmer, on the right page, and the team won seven of its last nine games, becoming that rare 10-6 team to miss the playoffs.
It's attributed to the dumb luck of playing in the same conference with arguably the two best teams in the league, the Seattle Seahawks (who won the Super Bowl) and the San Francisco 49ers. Arians' crowning achievement of putting together a brilliant game plan and beating the Seahawks near the end of the regular season didn't matter to the playoff gods. Even with the departure of more than a few workhorse veterans, the Cardinals are billed to be better this year. We're betting that Arians surprises his team's conference arch-rivals and takes the Redbirds deep into the playoffs this season.