The Arizona Cardinals are perhaps bracing for another long season in 2026. But ESPN’s Seth Walder thinks the payoff is coming faster than most people expect.
In ESPN’s Future Power Rankings, they project the 2027-29 window for all 32 teams, and Walder made a bold prediction that the Cardinals will improve more from one season to the next than anyone in the league.
ESPN Predicts Cardinals Will Have the NFL’s Biggest Turnaround
Walder’s call is specific, and optimistic.
“No team will add more wins from its 2026 record to its 2027 record than the Cardinals,” Walder wrote. “New quarterback? Maybe. But he won’t be the only new face, as OverTheCap.com projects them to have more cap space in 2027 than any other team.”
In other words, Walder expects Arizona to bottom out this season, then reload in a hurry.
Why the Cardinals Are Built for a 2027 Leap
The setup makes the prediction believable. The Cardinals are in the middle of a rebuild, coming off a 3-14 season and widely projected to have one of the league’s weakest rosters in 2026, finishing with a similar campaign in 2026.
That could be by design.
Arizona released longtime quarterback Kyler Murray, absorbing a massive dead-cap hit, and more or less handed the keys to veteran stopgap Jacoby Brissett. A rough 2026 would position the Cardinals, therefore, would land a premium pick in the 2027 draft, potentially their quarterback of the future.
General manager Monti Ossenfort seems to be building toward that.
He structured Arizona’s contracts to open up massive flexibility down the road, and OverTheCap projects the Cardinals to carry north of $100 million in cap space in 2027, more than any team in the NFL. That gives Ossenfort the rare chance to pair a high draft pick with the resources to add starters all over the roster in a single offseason. Most rebuilding teams have to choose between draft capital and spending power. Arizona is set up to have both at once.
The foundation is already better than the record suggests. Even in a down year, the Cardinals have a genuine offensive core in tight end Trey McBride, rookie running back Jeremiyah Love, and receivers Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. That’s exactly the kind of supporting cast a new quarterback could step into and thrive.
That’s not even mentioning offensive-minded first-year head coach Mike LaFleur.
Still, it all comes back to the position that has defined this franchise’s misfortunes.
If Arizona nails the quarterback decision, whether it’s third-round rookie Carson Beck taking a leap or a 2027 draft pick, the cap space and skill talent are in place to turn a rebuilding roster into a competitive one quickly.
The biggest obstacle is the division itself. The NFC West is loaded, with the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks, the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers all operating at a level the Cardinals aren’t close to yet. Adding wins is one thing; climbing that division is another.
The Cardinals most likely won’t be good in 2026. But the pieces for a huge bounce-back season in 2027 may already be lining up, and Arizona has spent the past year making sure of it.
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