Arizona Cardinals 2026 Outlook: A Bridge Quarterback, a Rookie Back, and Almost No One Betting on Wins
The Cardinals come into 2026 off a 3-14 season, their fourth losing year in five, with Mike LaFleur as head coach and Monti Ossenfort as general manager. Punditry has responded the way punditry usually does: a mountain of takes about the quarterback room, the rookie running back and the tight end, and near silence about everything that blocks, rushes or kicks.
Here is the shape of it. Across every Cardinals take the site holds, the position breakdown is lopsided: 96 takes about running backs, 94 about quarterbacks, 57 about receivers, 28 about tight ends — and 12 about cornerbacks, nine about defensive tackles, seven about guards, four about defensive ends. Safeties, kickers and punters: nothing at all.
Quarterbacks
This is where the volume is, and the consensus is close to unanimous: Jacoby Brissett opens the season, Gardner Minshew backs him up, and third-round rookie Carson Beck plays at some point.
Alex Clancy put it flatly in mid-August: "Jacoby Brissett right now is the best starting quarterback… that the Cardinals have… So if I had to guess right now, yeah, Jacoby, Gardner, Carson," adding that Beck stays QB3 "at least the first six weeks, if not two months of the season." Frank Schwab expects "Brissett will likely begin the season as the starter." Moe Moton called him "journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett." PFF's Cardinals preview split the difference: "It would not be a surprise if the Cardinals turn to third-round rookie Carson Beck at some point in 2026."
The genuine disagreement is about *when* Beck plays, not whether. Chris Brockman said Beck "is starting to establish himself, and I think he's gonna be the first rookie to start a game this year." Rich Eisen agreed — "He is set up to start first out of the rookie class" — then, two weeks later, reversed field and made Brissett one of his most surprising players of the season: "one of the most surprising things is you're not gonna see Carson Beck. He's gonna keep Carson Beck off the field." An unsigned CBS column went further and argued Arizona "should give their starting quarterback job to Carson Beck for the 2026 season."
None of this is graded yet — every 2026 depth-chart call on the room is still pending. What the site can tell you is that depth-chart calls are the easiest thing pundits do: Cardinals depth-chart takes have graded at 94.8 average accuracy on eight settled calls, and the type-level records back that up. Gregg Rosenthal is 92.81 on 26 depth-chart calls, Andrew Erickson 94.01 on 14, Derek Brown 96.67 on eight. High accuracy, near-zero skill — Rosenthal's depth-chart MissedTakes Score is −2.22, Erickson's −2.67. Naming the starter everyone else names beats the baseline by nothing.
The one *graded* Beck call belongs to Matt Miller, who in March had him as the first pick of the third round. Beck went 65th. That scored 100 accuracy, +40.4 skill.
The receiver room
The receiver takes are almost entirely fantasy takes about Marvin Harrison Jr., and they split hard. Mike Fanelli wrote that "fantasy players shouldn't be shocked if Harrison is this year's Chris Olave, a mid-round WR3 that finishes as a top-12 wide receiver." FantasyPros called him "cheap given his talent." Derek Brown is more restrained: "If he can overcome the quarterback play and a talented running mate in Michael Wilson, Harrison Jr. can be a volume-based WR3/flex for 2026." On the other side, Walt — "Harrison wasn't already a huge disappointment" is his framing of the downside — and Justin Weigal, who says Harrison's "ADP drop like a rock over the off-season… still isn't far enough."
Michael Wilson draws the sharpest disagreement. Ralph Vacchiano says Wilson "has put up good numbers for a No. 1 WR while waiting for Harrison to develop." Erickson fades him outright: "Wilson seems drastically overrated based on bloated counting stats from last year," and "he could be the No. 3 target on his own real-life team."
Worth knowing before you buy either side: Erickson's fantasy-bust record is genuinely good — 88.89 accuracy over 11 graded calls, +155.56 skill — while his sleeper calls run 44.67 accuracy and negative skill. Graded Cardinals receiver takes are a tiny sample: eight settled, 50.8 average accuracy.
The running back room
Jeremiyah Love, taken third overall, is the most-discussed Cardinal on the site — and the most-argued. Nearly everyone projects him as the lead back. Bradley Stalder's depth chart is "Jeremiyah Love, Tyler Allgeier, James Conner." Chad Workman says "Love will be the best football player with the red bird on his helmet any given Sunday."
The fight is over price, sharpened by a high ankle sprain. Derek Brown: "I think Love will be Arizona's lead back in 2026, but he could have his workload eaten into by Allgeier and/or Conner," and he'll "remain lower than consensus." A FantasyPros contributor called him "my biggest bust at running back" at RB14. Another: "this backfield is going to be more of a split than anyone cares to admit." Erickson lists Love among his running back busts. Pat Fitzmaurice takes the other side — "Drafting Love is a great way to capitalize on an irrational fear… I still expect a big season" — though his own fantasy-bust record is the weakest part of his file (22.86 accuracy, −108.57 skill over 13 graded calls).
There is also an award angle: Josh Edwards argues Love "should be viewed as the heavy favorite" for Offensive Rookie of the Year, and a producer known on air as JB simply said "he's winning the award." For context on how that ballot usually goes, the site's 2025 OROY field spread 29 picks across 12 players, and the winner, Tetairoa McMillan, drew five of them.
Cardinals running-back takes are the worst-scoring position group on the team's ledger: 14 graded, 48.8 average accuracy, −54.63 average skill. No fullback takes exist.
The tight ends
Trey McBride is the only Cardinal with a meaningful graded record behind the punditry, and the record is flattering. Six settled Cardinals tight-end takes average 93.1 accuracy and +84.72 skill — the highest of any unit on the team.
Mike Florio called McBride his TE1 for 2025 in August of that year and scored 100 accuracy, +66.67 skill. Tony Gonzalez said in February "Trey is the best tight end in the league right now" — 100 accuracy, though only +8.33 skill, because by then it was the obvious answer. Ryan Wormeli predicted a top-five finish in December and got 66.67 accuracy, zero skill: McBride finished first, which was better than the call.
For 2026 the field has flipped to caution. Fitzmaurice: "It will be hard for Trey McBride to top the year he had in 2025." Rich Hribar expects McBride to lead tight ends in routes again and still won't draft him at cost. Tom Strachan repeated across four draft-slot guides that "whether you prefer Brock Bowers or Trey McBride doesn't really matter. Neither should be drafted this high." Against them: Vacchiano ("the best and most productive receiving TE in the league"), FantasyPros ("McBride could repeat this season as the TE1 overall"), Douglas Clawson's bold call that "he will be the first TE to lead the NFL in receptions since Tony Gonzalez in 2004," and Walt's projection of 107 catches, 1,090 yards, eight touchdowns.
The offensive line
Most of the 35 tackle-tagged Cardinals takes are mock drafts about players Arizona never got, and they graded well: Daniel Jeremiah put Francis Mauigoa at No. 8 (91.7 accuracy), David Harrison had Spencer Fano to Arizona at 12 (87.81), and a long line of mocks — Mel Kiper, Miller, Jordan Reid, Mike Renner, Nick Wright, Jaime Eisner — had a tackle at No. 3. Arizona took a running back instead. Cardinals tackle takes still average 75.8 accuracy on 23 graded calls, the best-graded unit with real sample size.
On the actual line, PFF's Gordon McGuinness projects two new starters: "left guard Isaac Seumalo is a clear upgrade over Evan Brown," and "the Cardinals also upgraded at right tackle… Elijah Wilkinson is unlikely to be an All-Pro, but he outperformed both in 2025." Donnie Druin has Isaiah Adams holding right guard — "Adams has impressed the entire coaching staff and essentially has the starting job in his hands" — with Jon Gaines II as the interior swing man. Guard takes on this team: seven, one graded.
The defensive line
Four defensive-end takes exist, only two graded, and both are mock-draft calls about prospects. That is the honest summary of how much checkable punditry the Cardinals' edge has attracted.
The interior has slightly more, and it's all one name: Walter Nolen as a breakout. Rob Rang expects him to "emerge as one of the NFC's better young pass rushing defensive tackles." Bucky Brooks put him on his All-Breakout Team: "he, to me, is their best defensive lineman." McGuinness twice wrote "there's a chance he emerges as Arizona's best defensive player by the end of the season," while flagging the unit's problem: "the only projected new starter, Roy Lopez, earned a PFF grade below 70.0 in 2025." Nine defensive tackle takes, one graded.
The secondary
Thin, and what's there is descriptive rather than predictive. Druin has Garrett Williams' return pushing Sean Murphy-Bunting to the boundary opposite Will Johnson, and separately says Denzel Burke is "very much in the mix to start opposite of Will Johnson and could be considered a favorite." Twelve cornerback takes, five graded, 29.1 average accuracy — dragged down by the 2025 mocks that had Johnson going 16th when he went 47th (26.11 accuracy for both Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue).
Safeties: no takes at all. Budda Baker appears in the site's notable-players list for Arizona and in two NFL Top 100 predictions, and that is the extent of it.
Special teams
No kicker, punter or long-snapper takes exist for this team. The closest thing is Nathan Jahnke on Devin Duvernay's roster spot: "Duvernay appears locked into a roster spot, likely more because of his special teams value than his receiving ability." One honest sentence is all the data supports.
The rookie class
The 2026 haul, per the draft results: Jeremiyah Love (RB, No. 3), Chase Bisontis (G, 34), Carson Beck (QB, 65), Kaleb Proctor (DT, 104), Reggie Virgil (WR, 143), Karson Sharar (LB, 183), Jayden Williams (OL, 217).
Love and Beck are covered above. Bisontis was the second-most-discussed rookie and the story turned: Zachary Pereles wrote in mid-August that "second-round pick Chase Bisontis should start right away at guard"; days later Druin reported the knee injury and wrote he "is likely to miss most of the 2026 season, if not all." Jahnke has Virgil making the roster as "a fifth-round pick" who "hasn't been able to move up the depth chart." Williams drew praise from Druin — "undoubtedly has secured his spot on the final 53" and "an undeniable second-teamer." Sharar has exactly one take: he "might have just surpassed Owen Pappoe on the ILB depth chart." Proctor has nine takes, none of them about Arizona — Renner's boldest was a second-round call on a player who went 104th, and Peter Bukowski got 84.09 accuracy for saying he'd go inside the top 100.
The overall outlook
There is no 2026 win-total consensus on file yet — the site's consensus tool returns nothing for a season that hasn't been played. What exists is a scattering of individual calls, and they run bleak.
Nick Wright, twice, in the first days of September: "Everybody's gonna have the Cardinals in last place. I am going three and fourteen," and "They're going 3-14. They might be the worst team in the league." Moe Moton projected 2-15. Rosenthal's version is gentler: "I think they have 200 good players. They'll stumble into four or five wins" — after taking the over on 4.5 back in May. From the spring, two outliers: Clancy ("the Cardinals gonna win more games this year in the past") and Brockman, who said Arizona goes "over 500 next year."
The record on this kind of Cardinals call is bad. Three graded season win-total takes for Arizona average 26.7 accuracy. Brady Quinn had them at seven wins in 2025 (they won three) — 20 accuracy. Colin Cowherd said "Arizona can win ten to eleven games" — zero. And season win totals are the hardest type on the board generally: the type leaderboard is topped by Cowherd at a MissedTakes Score of 21.92 on 43.33 accuracy, with Wright fourth and *negative* (−10.42 over 50 graded calls).
Division and conference punditry on Arizona barely exists, and what does exist is uniformly wrong. All three graded Cardinals division-winner takes scored zero — LaVar Arrington picked them to win the NFC West in 2025 (twice) and Sports Info Solutions did the same in 2022. The lone graded playoff call is Dan Patrick in August 2025: "I don't see them as a Super Bowl contender, but I do see them as a playoff team." Zero accuracy, −200 skill. There are no power-ranking takes on this team at all.
The 2027 mock drafts have already started, and they tell you where the field's head is: Walt has Arch Manning going first overall to Arizona; Ian Cummings has the same; Renner has Jeremiah Smith to the Cardinals at No. 2. Nobody is mocking a top-two pick to a team they expect to win.