One key thing the Arizona Cardinals need to do over the next couple of years is stack talent.
It has been an issue since the 2015 season for the team to add talent to the roster, and in that time the talent going out was much better than the talent coming in.
That’s why when you look at these offseason lists of the best players in football, not only do you scour the list looking for Arizona Cardinals players, you hope that there are new names associated with the Cardinals.
Pete Prisco released his yearly top 100 players in the NFL list and the Cardinals have two names on the list, but also added a third name which is a big deal.
Prisco has Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson on the list, but newly acquired DeAndre Hopkins joins them.
From Prisco:
8. Chandler Jones, LB - Arizona Cardinals
He’s had five consecutive double-digit sack seasons, getting 19 last season to finish a half-sack from leading the league. He has 32 sacks the past two seasons, second to Aaron Donald for the most of any player in the league.
31. DeAndre Hopkins, WR - Arizona Cardinals
He had another big year with 104 catches and seven touchdowns, but his yards per catch went down over two yards from the previous season. Aberration or a concern?
75. Patrick Peterson, CB - Arizona Cardinals
After being suspended for the first four games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, he didn’t look like the same elite player we had seen for much of his career. But he bounced back down the stretch to play to that level.
Adding Hopkins to a five win team should be a nice little boost, but the key to the team improving as a whole is adding two or maybe even three more players to the list while the three on the list remain.
Swapping two new players for two or heaven forbid all three Cardinals players on the list won’t see improvement for the team.
For instance, the Chiefs have six players on the list, the 49ers have five, the Ravens have five, the Saints have six.
The Cardinals approaching the five or six number will start to put them on a similar level.
If they cannot get the players to make the jump while their best players maintain their current level of play, then we’ll see similar outcomes from the past four seasons.
The question becomes, who are the two or three players you could see joining the current three on the list?