Loss to the Saints sends Arizona Cardinals fans confidence down as team prepares for 49ers

Fandom is fickle, that is something we know.

A week after peaking in confidence, the highest since before the first game of the Steve Wilks era, things are leveling back out.

The Cardinals were drubbed by the New Orleans Saints, one of the three or four elite NFC teams, and it has fans concerned about the overall direction of the team.

After 80% of fans responded that they were confident in the direction of the team, the loss to the Saints shot that back down to 63%.

It is understandable that fans would lose some confidence in the direction of the team, they lost by 22 after all, but I think last week was more of a measuring stick of where the team is in their re-rebuild.

If you step back and assess, the Cardinals talent level probably hovers in the 16-22 range for their top 25 players.

We saw that even in the first half of the Saints game.

The problem lies in the dropoff from their top 25 to the rest of the roster. While their top 25 is young, or old, they have some talent. What they lack is true, NFL level depth.

When you are asking players like Corey Peters to play 70% of snaps or more, talented NFL players who should be on pitch counts, it makes things tough. Tougher though is the 30% of snaps you lose Peters on and it shows up.

When you take a player who should be playing 45-50 snaps a game and ask them to play 60-65, it shows, but it shows even more when the replacement comes in and can’t even give them a break.

Some of that is out of the hands of Steve Keim, Darius Philon’s off field issue and Zach Allen’s never ending neck injury. Yet, it also lies at the feet of the architect.

That’s where the Cardinals are at this point.

In no game this season have they just been run off the field from the jump, they simply just can’t compete for 60 minutes with good teams (Baltimore, Seattle and New Orleans).

Hell, it has even shown up in their wins, where they have to hang on against bad teams because their talent is thin and gassed.

It is early in the rebuilding process, but I think you have to be confident in the direction the team is heading.

We just all want it to get there faster.

I mean, it could be worse, you could be the Dolphins, Skins, Jets or Bengals.

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