We can now officially tie a bow around the 2017 NFL season. Here are the overall season grades for all 32 NFL franchises based on how they did in 2017.
And now it is the offseason. Super Bowl LII has been played out in Minneapolis, as the Philadelphia Eagles were able to knock off the New England Patriots on Sunday night, 41-33. This was the first Super Bowl championship in Eagles franchise history. Philadelphia is in full-blown pandemonium after winning Super Bowl LII, as it should be.
Obviously, New England is bummed that it didn’t win its third Super Bowl in four years, but the Patriots remain the greatest football dynasty of all time. That being said, is it really the end of the road for the Patriots? Tom Brady isn’t getting any younger. Sunday night showed us all this is what 40 looks like in the NFL.
But the other 30 NFL franchise got to watch this title bout from their couches at home. Every team outside of Philadelphia has had at least two weeks to reflect on the past football season. What went wrong and all the good stuff that went so right. Some teams had a better 2017 than others to say the very least.
So what we’re going to do is to hand out some grades for all 32 franchise’s season. We will look at them as a whole and assess a letter grade. These are mostly based on performance stemming from expectations. So let’s get this one down and see who gets A’s and who gets big, fat F’s.
Arizona Cardinals
Entering 2017, there was some reason to believe that the Arizona Cardinals would bounce back and return to the NFL Playoffs. The 2016 team was marred by a multitude of special teams blunders that resulted in them going 7-8-1. Though Arizona improved its record ever so slightly in 2017, it was again a disappointing season due to injury and honestly a sad one because the Bruce Arians era of Cardinals football came to an end.
2017 started off with a whimper as the team’s best player in running back David Johnson suffered a season-ending wrist injury in Week 1’s road loss to the Detroit Lions. This eventually led to the Cardinals signing Adrian Peterson off the free agent market, outside of a pair of 100-yard rushing performances, it was not a fruitful signing for the Cardinals. Peterson finished with 448 yards and two touchdowns in six games for the Cardinals.
To add insult to injury, starting quarterback Carson Palmer broke his arm in Week 7’s loss to the division rival Los Angeles Rams in London. That was the last game Palmer played in the NFL, as he called it a career in January. Backing him up was a lackluster tandem in Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert. Yet, the Cardinals found a way to finish 8-8 on the year as they were completely broken down the stretch.
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Arians decided after Week 17’s road victory over the division rival Seattle Seahawks that he too would retire from football. Arizona had experienced its greatest five-year stretch in terms of stability, but old age finally caught up to the Cardinals. Getting to 8-8 was impressive, all things considered. However, injuries and retirements have us all wondering what the future holds for Cardinals football. It’s hard to look back on their 2017 and not feel sorry that this was how the Arians era ended in Glendale.
Grade: D+