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It is the offseason, which means there is a lot of stuff just being put out.
Pride of Detroit did such an article. They took Matthew Stafford, placed him on every team in the NFL and ran a simulation of the 2017 NFL season.
That includes your Arizona Cardinals.
The results:
Record: 9-7
Difference: +2Stafford’s stats: 345 of 511, 4,113 passing yards, 35 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, 100.8 passer rating.
9-7 seems to coincide with what many believe could be the Arizona Cardinals record with Palmer, so nothing to extreme quite yet, but how did Stafford fair and what about the Cardinals?
Among qualifying quarterbacks, Stafford finished in the top ten in a bunch of categories: completion percentage (4th), passing yards (10th), passing touchdowns (5th) and passer rating (8th). While he was a little turnover happy, the Cardinals still managed to lock up a Wild Card Round matchup with the Seahawks, the winners of the NFC West. And they won!
Stafford took the Cardinals to Seattle and won a playoff game.
In the Divisional Round, the Cardinals met the Packers and league MVP Aaron Rodgers... and Stafford absolutely lit up the Green Bay secondary—29 of 40, 373 passing yards, 4 passing touchdowns and a couple of interceptions—en route to a 47-35 victory.
But, all good things must come to an end: Arizona lost a heartbreaker to the Carolina Panthers in a rematch of the 2016 NFC Championship game, 31-27.
Welp, a repeat of 2015 season, a win over the Packers in a close game, then a loss to Carolina in Carolina for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.
Arizona Cardinals fans would love a chance to see their team in the game again, and to be quite honest, I don’t think anyone cares who the quarterback is.
Thanks Pride of Detroit.