clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Arizona Cardinals special teams one of worst in NFL

Rick Gosselin’s yearly special teams rankings tell the story of the Arizona Cardinals abysmal special teams unit.

NFL: Preseason-Denver Broncos at Arizona Cardinals Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

While the season is over, the information about the 2016 season continues to roll in.

With that comes end of the year stats and rankings that shine a light on certain aspects of the season.

Each year, Rick Gosselin of Dallas News ranks the special teams units in the NFL.

This season, his rankings were not earth shattering to any Arizona Cardinals fans, but they did confirm what many of us already knew.

The Arizona Cardinals were awful on special teams in 2016.

In fact, under Amos Jones, the Arizona Cardinals have been a bottom five special teams unit as many times as they have been a top 12.

The greatest issue in 2016 was clearly the punter, something every fan seemed to know heading into the season, but for some reason, management did not.

Drew Butler was left to handle the punting duties, much was made of his ability as a holder being the reason, and it really bit the Arizona Cardinals in the ass.

From Gosselin’s article, Arizona was last both in overall punting at 40.9 yards per punt and net punting, at 36.5 yards per punt.

There are three phases to winning football games, it won’t matter how good the Cardinals are offensively or defensively if they are one of the worst on special teams again in 2017.