In a season where they only won four games, the Arizona Cardinals were surprisingly frisky last year, providing lots of value in the team’s betting lines. Despite being underdogs in every matchup, they covered the spread in nine of 17 games — a testament to Jonathan Gannon’s ability to get the most out of a talent-deficient roster.
With a 2-4 record in one-score games, Arizona was often closer to victory than the final standings suggest, and this Cardinals betting preview will look at what they did this offseason to build on that.
Arizona Cardinals Futures Odds
All odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook unless noted otherwise.
- Super Bowl Odds: +10000
- NFC Odds: +5000
- NFC West Odds: +1300
- Win Total: 6.5 (Over -150/Under +125)
- To Make/Miss the Playoffs: +300/-400
Cardinals Offense
The Cardinals started the offseason by adding a new offensive tackle addition in Jonah Williams. Per TruMedia and PFF, Williams allowed eight sacks and 32 pressures last season on 695 pass-blocking snaps, putting him in the bottom five and bottom 14th in percentile, respectively.
One of the more promising additions to the team is Marvin Harrison Jr., who complements future star Trey McBride very nicely. McBride spent 52.7% of his snaps (447 of 864) inline and 32.4% in the slot (280 of 864).
Comparatively, Harrison played on the outside in over 80% of his snaps for both 2022 and 2023 at Ohio State. He will likely replace Hollywood Brown as Arizona’s primary receiving target.
Cardinals Defense
The Cardinals struggled mightily on defense last season, with an abysmal 0.09 EPA per play, ranking second to last — ahead of only the Washington Commanders. Most of these issues came against the pass, again ranking second to last with an EPA per play of 0.21.
MORE: NFL Super Bowl Odds
Adding Justin Jones to the defensive line along with Darius Robinson in the first round of the draft and Xavier Thomas in Round 5 is an attempt to improve their pass rush, which also ranked second to last in pressures per game.
One Betting Trend To Know
After Kyler Murray rejoined the team last season in Week 10, the Cardinals covered the spread in five of eight games, tied for seventh in the league. Since drafting Murray No. 1 overall, Arizona is 24-16 (60%) against the spread as an underdog and 10-12 (45.5%) as a favorite.
Best Bets for the Cardinals in 2024
When targeting A.J. Green or DeAndre Hopkins in the past, Murray averaged 0.33 EPA per dropback. For context, Patrick Mahomes averaged 0.41 when targeting Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce, and Josh Allen averaged 0.31 when targeting Stefon Diggs.
While Harrison is only a rookie, he will look to play a role similar to that of these large and athletic outside wide receivers in past seasons.
KEEP READING: NFL Defensive Player of the Year Odds
Looking at the odds for each of Arizona’s futures, the implied probabilities are as follows: Super Bowl (0.99%), NFC champions (1.96%), NFC West champions (7.14%), over 6.5 wins (60%), under 6.5 (44.44%), make playoffs (25%), miss playoffs (80%).
With a defense that can’t get much worse, a healthy Murray, and a new dynamic 1-2 punch, I like some combination of over 6.5 wins (-150) and make the playoffs (+300).
Kyle Soppe’s Cardinals Best Bet
Pick: Cardinals to score a TD in every game (+220 at DraftKings)
Ten teams pulled this off in 2023, and while Arizona was not one of them, the Cardinals found paydirt in 15 of their games, including multiple times on 13 occasions.
That’s not a bad result considering that Murray missed nine games. The two failed games last season saw Clayton Tune start in Cleveland against arguably the best defense in the league, and the other featured Joshua Dobbs taking on Aaron Donald and Company.
Not ideal.
The Cardinals have scored a touchdown in 16 straight games in which Murray has started, oftentimes taking care of business in the first half (TD in the first half of 12 of those contests). Arizona drafted a pair of very talented rookies (Harrison and Trey Benson) and brought in Zay Jones to improve its depth.
This was the fourth-worst yards-per-play defense in the league a season ago. The need to score will be there, and the talent upgrades will make it hard to slow them down for an entire 60-minute game.