Arizona Cardinals' Win Prediction is Underwhelming
By Peter Dewey
A slew of big-name veterans are making their way to Arizona for the 2021 NFL season, but none of them seem to be moving the needle for the Arizona Cardinals in Vegas.
J.J. Watt, James Conner, Markus Golden, A.J. Green and Malcolm Butler are all joining Kliff Kingsbury’s team, but WynnBET projects the Cardinals to win just 8.5 games in 2021 with the under (-180) being heavily favored to the over (+150). The implied probability of those odds says there's a 64.3% chance of them winning eight or fewer games, which in a 17-game season would be below .500.
That doesn't seem right.
The Cardinals are opening the 2021 season against the Tennessee Titans and the odds aren’t in their favor there either. Arizona is a 2.5-point underdog against the Titans despite all of its offseason moves.
Watt, Butler and Green are certainly past their primes, but they should be productive players for Arizona in 2021. Conner is coming off a down year in Pittsburgh, but the Cardinals brought him in on a rather low-risk one-year deal.
Kyler Murray is one of the league’s better young quarterbacks and DeAndre Hopkins is a Top 3 receiver. Arizona was 8-8 in 2020 with less talent. Why is their win predicted so low?
To put it simply, the Cardinals' division is an absolute juggernaut. The Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are all playoff contenders, and they have win projections of 9.5 or higher.
Matt Stafford joining the Rams is a significant upgrade in 2021, and the Seahawks attempted to fix their offensive line struggles this offseason by trading for Gabe Jackson. San Francisco was in the Super Bowl in 2019 before a rash of injuries derailed its 2020 campaign, and the 49ers are probably better this year than they were in 2019.
he NFC West might be the toughest division in football, and the Cardinals are Vegas’ pick to bring up its rear in 2021. We'll see if that happens or if the Cardinals prove the oddsmakers wrong.