Arizona Cardinals in 2024: How the rebuild of 2023 will impact the team moving ahead

Sometimes, rebuilding projects in the NFL start out an awful lot like that old Tom Hanks movie “The Money Pit.” A couple decides to purchase a mansion and pour money into having it renovated. It gets ugly before it gets better, there are plenty of unexpected delays and disasters, and things start to look bleak.

But as one of the contractors famously said toward the end of the 1986 flick, “If the foundation is OK, then everything else can be fixed.”

The Arizona Cardinals are well on their way to a third consecutive losing season, but following a massive roster overhaul, a total shakeup of their front office and an almost completely revamped coaching staff, the franchise has a chance to be saved and remade.

Much of that may depend on their own chief contractor, first-year General Manager Monti Ossenfort, and what he decides to do during the offseason. With an armada of draft picks at his disposal in 2024, including two first-round picks and six within the top 81 selections overall, not to mention a mountain of expected salary cap space to add free agents or bring in players via trades, Ossenfort has an opportunity to flip the rebuild around in a hurry.

And it’s not as if it hasn’t happened incredibly fast before in the NFL.

Recent history suggests it’s more than just possible. To recite facts we reported shortly after Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, at least one of the two teams who have met in each of the past seven Super Bowls, including the 2022 Eagles, with whom Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon served as defensive coordinator, got there after suffering a losing season just two years prior.

Philadelphia was 4-11-1 two years before it met, and lost, to Kansas City last season. The Bengals went 2-14 in 2019 two years before losing to the Rams in Super Bowl 56. The Buccaneers went 5-11 in 2018 two years before beating the Chiefs in Super Bowl 55. The 49ers were 6-10 in 2017 two years before losing to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54.

But wait, it goes on.

The Rams were 4-12 in 2016 two years before losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl 53. The Eagles were 7-9 in 2015 two years before beating the Patriots in Super Bowl 52. And the Falcons were 6-10 in 2014 two years before losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl 51.

Ossenfort, Gannon and the Cardinals don’t need to get to the Super Bowl next season to make this ongoing rebuild a success. The franchise just needs to keep taking the necessary and correct steps toward improvement to prevent it from being a perennial failure.

“The culture shift, everything, you’ve seen it through the season,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “We’ve played well in spurts. We beat some good teams, we’ve been in some close games. I think things are turning in the right direction.

“You’ve got to finish strong. The focus is just go play well. Don’t worry about the result. Just buy into the process and keep doing what we’re doing. Obviously, build some confidence going into the next season and the offseason, but for me, just play well.”

That might sound like taking baby steps, but it could signify a monumental leap in the right direction considering this franchise has enjoyed just seven winning seasons in the 36 years it’s been here since relocating from St. Louis in 1988. Despite the double-digit losses this season, the 2023 Cardinals have managed to display a relentless, team-first and continuing all-out effort in just about every single one of their games.

Despite the results in the win-loss column, the players have all bought into the system and the message Ossenfort sent to everyone when he assumed the role of GM.

“We are not just collecting talent, we’re building a team,” he said in his introductory news conference. “We’re going to look for the right type of players. Ego will not be tolerated in this organization. We are going to look for focused-driven people who are willing to put the team first at every step of the way.”

Everyone from veteran left tackle D.J. Humphries and safety Budda Baker to Murray and rookie right tackle Paris Johnson Jr. have not only fully accepted that sentiment, but they’ve lived up to it and have continued to preach the same message throughout the locker room.

Gannon, Arizona’s energetic, 40-year-old, first-time NFL head coach, has further fostered that mantra on a week-to-week basis. He’s been a constant, positive re-enforcement of those values and has convinced the team that getting a little bit better and working a little bit every day will only help the Cardinals’ turnaround happen that much quicker.

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A similar situation has been going on in Houston this season under first-year coach DeMeco Ryans, whose club rebounded from an 0-2 start to go 8-6 through Week 15 and tie for the lead in the AFC South. It ignited hopes for Texans’ fans that a possible playoff appearance, after going 11-38 the previous three seasons combined, isn’t that far away.

Cardinals team owner Michael Bidwill, when he announced the hiring of Gannon back In February, had a sense his fourth coach in seven years had the passion and the blueprint to make the rebuild in Arizona a success.

“He came in with a vision and a plan,” Bidwill said at that time, adding, “The vision aligned with where we want to be about getting back to the top of the NFC West, competing in January, competing to get the Super Bowl, and winning it.”

Bidwill and the former front-office regime committed $230.5 million toward Murray a year ago under the expectation that the former No. 1 overall pick in 2019 would become the long-term franchise quarterback the Cardinals have never had since they arrived in Arizona. If that remains the belief moving forward, the team can use its hefty draft capital and salary-cap space to continue to build around him.

The Cardinals could look to add help at edge rusher, wide receiver, cornerback and both the interior offensive and defensive line to strengthen the roster, be it through the 2024 draft, free agency or trades. Moving on from Murray, however, and all the tricky dead cap space that would entail, could make things challenging and push the rebuilding project back a year or two, or perhaps even three years or longer.

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, for one, said the Cardinals don’t need to search for their next franchise quarterback. They already have one, he said, in Murray, who missed the first nine weeks of this season rehabbing his way back from a torn ACL.

“He’s a franchise quarterback,” Petzing said. “I think just the way he carries himself, the way he plays the game, the way he leads, just everything about the type of person and player he is warrants that. I think he’s done a really nice job of embracing that and continuing to grow and improve, as we want everybody in that room to do.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals in 2024: Looking ahead to what awaits the franchise