The Cardinals have bolstered their defense in 2025. But they had a surprising improvement in 2024 with less talent
The Arizona Cardinals have made a concerted effort this offseason to improve their defense, adding starting talent and depth on the defensive line, the defensive edge and linebacker in free agency and then addressing every defensive position in the NFL draft.
But that roster improvement comes after they made marked improvements from 2023 to 2024 defensively.
BetMGM’s Nick Hennion noted that the Cardinals “moved from 32nd in defensive DVOA in 2023 to 14th in 2024” and that the improvement was impressive for a number of reasons.
- They played the third-hardest schedule of opposing offenses in 2024 after playing the hardest schedule in 2023.
- They lost 72.9 adjusted games to injury on defense, the fourth-highest total in the league.
- They lost BJ Ojulari, Dennis Gardeck, Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols to season-ending injuries.
They were 15th in scoring defense last season but 21st in yards allowed. They were 14th in passing defense and 20th in run defense. However, they had an interesting dichotomy of metrics. They were sixth in the league in the percentage of opposing offensive drives ending in scores, but they were dead last in plays allowed per drive and second-to-last in time allowed per drive.
If they improved that much with a roster that is markedly worse than the current one, imagine what this year’s defense might be when they have an easier schedule.
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