NFL 2016: Regular season grades for every team
By John Buhler
The 2016 NFL regular season is in the books. Here are the grades for all 32 NFL franchises. How did your favorite team do this year?
The 2016 NFL regular season is no more. It’s time for 12 NFL teams to get ready for the AFC/NFC playoffs with the hopes of making it to Super Bowl 51 in Houston. For the 20 organizations, all attention is on the 2017 NFL Draft with the hopes of getting better come next autumn.
Every team entered 2016 with a certain level of expectations. Some lived up to the hype, others exceeded it, and others spun out of control in catastrophic fashion. Today, we’re going to hand out regular season grades for all 32 franchises. The plus/minus system will be in effect.
The Arizona Cardinals were one of those teams that absolutely did not live up to the hype placed on them in 2016. Arizona only a year ago played in the 2015 NFC Championship Game against the Carolina Panthers. Quarterback Carson Palmer was an MVP candidate. Head coach Bruce Arians was without question a top-five head coach in the NFL.
As we look back on the Cardinals’ 2016 NFL campaign, disappointment is the word that best encapsulates this year’s team. The passing offense never really got going. Much of that had to do with injuries on the offensive line. That threw off Palmer’s timing enough bring into question if he was rapidly decaying as a passer or if Arizona even has good wideouts.
The defense wasn’t as stout as it had been in 2015. Arizona really struggled to find the cornerback to play opposite of Patrick Peterson in the Cardinals secondary. Even kicker Chandler Catanzaro had his issues kicking the football. Arians definitely let him know about it.
It wasn’t a fun year for Arians and company in the Valley of the Sun. Missing the NFC playoffs was not acceptable, but is now reality. The one saving grace is that David Johnson emerged as an absolute beast at running back. Unfortunately, he suffered knee injury in Week 17 that might derail his promising NFL career. Other than Johnson through Week 16, this was an awful year for Cardinals football.