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Arizona Cardinals Gameday HQ

Three Questions 1. How is Carson Palmer holding up? No reason to think we’ll see a decline in his game. Palmer, who turns 35 in December, has no lingering injury issues and has a stat line as consistent as the plains of North Dakota. In fact, in his first year as the Cardinals QB in 2013, Palmer topped his career completion percentage (63.3 over 62.6), his passing yards per game average (267.1 over 244.5) and average yards per attempt (7.5 over 7.2). 2. Is this the year Floyd overtakes Fitzgerald in the receiving department? Fantasy football experts say no, currently ranking Fitzgerald 15th as a fantasy wideout while Floyd rates 23rd at FantasyPros.com, mainly because the experts see Fitzgerald as more of a touchdown threat (10 TDs in 2013) than Floyd (5 TDs). Still, one has to wonder if the 24-year-old, third-year pupil has finally passed the 11th-year vet and master of his craft. Most fantasy owners, and more importantly real-life Cardinals football fans, are counting on both to become 1,000-yard receivers this season, especially since Floyd joined the 1K club for the first time in his career, garnering 1041 receiving yards in 2013, while Fitzgerald tallied closely behind at 954, just missing the seventh 1,000-yard receiving season of his career. 3. Have we ever seen two DBs on one team as athletic and imposing as 6-2, 210-pound Cromartie and 6-1, 219-pound Peterson? You’d be hard pressed to find a more gifted DB duo. In their repsective combine days, the now 30-year-old Cromartie bench pressed 225 pounds (18 times), had a vertical jump of 42 inches and 20-yard shuttle scores of (3.89), while also scoring a 4.38 time in the 40 and 7.02 time in the threecone drill. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Peterson ran a 4.31 40 with a threecone drill time of 6.58, while posting an impressive 15 bench presses of 225 pounds, a 38-inch vertical and 4.07 in the 20-yard shuttle. Defensive Player to watch Campbell is the best NFL player yet to play in a Pro Bowl—he was an alternate in 2013—yet there are some who will top that description and flatout call Campbell the best defensive end in the game. The 6-8, 300-pounder not only anchored Arizona’s league-leading run defense, Campbell also sacked the quarterback nine times, showing a defensive dominance you don’t see from a player every year. Cardinals Special Teams Special teams is certainly not a strength of the Cards, with punter Dave Zastudil being the only player posting above-average metrics at FootballOutsiders.com. Hyped returner Patrick Peterson and teammates were really among the worst punt-return crews in 2013, ranking second to last. Yes, the 6.0-per-punt-return man is not the same threat he was in 2011 when he returned four punts for touchdowns and a 15.9 average. Kick return wasn’t much better, which is why that responsibility is now in Ted Ginn’s hands. Kicker Jay Feely had trouble with both his kickoff game and— more importantly—his field goal/extra point responsibilities. TEAM ROSTER CARDINALS DEPTH CHART OFFENSE QB Carson Palmer Drew Stanton RB Andre Ellington Stepfan Taylor WR Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd Ted Ginn, Jaron Brown TE Troy Niklas, John Carlson Rob Housler T Jared Veldheer, Bobby Massie Bradley Sowell, Nate Potter G Jonathan Cooper, Paul Fanaika Earl Watford C Lyle Sendlein Ted Larsen DEFENSE DE Calais Campbell, Darnell Dockett Kareem Martin, Frostee Rucker NT Dan Williams Alameda Ta’amu OLB John Abraham, Matt Shaughnessy Alex Okafor, Sam Acho ILB Kevin Minter, Larry Foote Lorenzo Alexander, Desmond Bishop CB Patrick Peterson, Antonio Cromartie Bryan McCann, Jerraud Powers S Tyrann Mathieu, Deone Bucannon Rashad Johnson, Tony Jefferson SPECIAL TEAMS K Jay Feely P Dave Zastudil KR Ted Ginn PR Patrick Peterson


Arizona Cardinals Gameday HQ
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