4 Cardinals who have exceeded expectations in 2022

[Goodyear Card]

4 Cardinals who have exceeded expectations in 2022

In what has been a very disappointing season for the Cardinals, let's take a look at some of the players that have exceeded expectations on the season.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[mjb21aztd]

No 1.... easy answer every player has a flaw well besides nuk and watt on this team

Even cards mini franchise cod qb

 

[kerouac9]

Zaven Collins is a tough one for me because I hope our expectations were higher than "not be a total bust."

I'm fine with the other three (DE Allen, CB Wilson, WR Dortch). I'd probably sub Collins out for... I dunno, J.J. Watt, who's only missed one game and been extremely effective all year.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Zaven Collins is a tough one for me because I hope our expectations were higher than "not be a total bust."

I'm fine with the other three (DE Allen, CB Wilson, WR Dortch). I'd probably sub Collins out for... I dunno, J.J. Watt, who's only missed one game and been extremely effective all year.

I'd sub Zaven in for Myjai Sanders.

 

[gmabel830]

I'd sub Murphy in for Wilson, and probably omit Zaven. Zaven and Marco are indeed tough - they have been inconsistent but improved from last year. So depends on what your expectations were for them. My immediate thoughts were Allen & Murphy - I didn't think of Dortch but that one is an obvious yes too and the only one on the offensive side of the ball.

 

[QuebecCard]

I'd sub Zaven in for Myjai Sanders.

Mr. 'not a bust', short of injury, will end up with over 100 tackles and 4 or 5 sacks in his first full year at MLB.

Myjai has (9) nine tackles and two sacks at this point.

 

[PJ1]

I wouldn’t say Collins exceeded but performance this year has been promising.

 

[PJ1]

Mr. 'not a bust', short of injury, will end up with over 100 tackles and 4 or 5 sacks in his first full year at MLB.

Myjai has (9) nine tackles and two sacks at this point.

Sanders and Thomas deserve more playing time.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Mr. 'not a bust', short of injury, will end up with over 100 tackles and 4 or 5 sacks in his first full year at MLB.

Myjai has (9) nine tackles and two sacks at this point.

What is your point exactly? I don't think Zaven is exceeding expectations at all. He is performing right where I expected, hence why he would not be on my list.

 

[kerouac9]

I'd sub Zaven in for Myjai Sanders.

I dunno. Sanders has 2 sacks in 12 games? Seems about expectations for the pick level?

Maybe your expectations were lower than mine tho.

I'd sub Murphy in for Wilson, and probably omit Zaven. Zaven and Marco are indeed tough - they have been inconsistent but improved from last year. So depends on what your expectations were for them. My immediate thoughts were Allen & Murphy - I didn't think of Dortch but that one is an obvious yes too and the only one on the offensive side of the ball.

Murphy has been out with injury which puts him in the middle for now.

 

[cheesebeef]

Zaven Collins is a tough one for me because I hope our expectations were higher than "not be a total bust."

I'm fine with the other three (DE Allen, CB Wilson, WR Dortch). I'd probably sub Collins out for... I dunno, J.J. Watt, who's only missed one game and been extremely effective all year.

Watt is mine.I expected him to either be injured by now or significantly tailed off. Dude is still producing at a high level.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

Hollywood brown over Zaven Collins.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I dunno. Sanders has 2 sacks in 12 games? Seems about expectations for the pick level?

I think he would be producing more, but for the lack of playing time all of Vance Joseph's picks suffer from.

 

[Dayman]

I agree with Watt over Collins.

Collins had 3 tackles and a dropped INT that could have sealed the game last week. I absolutely expect more from a first round pick. So far he is better than Kevin Minter but I don't see him topping out as more than a more athletic and less instinctual Gerald Hayes. I don't think he is an upgrade on Jordan Hicks so far, either, which is disappointing.

Collins' pick 6 was cool, though.

 

[PlayerHater]

Kliff should be on this list. I'm pretty sure most expected he would have been fired by now.

 

[Jetstream Green]

Marco Wilson did not exceed my expectations because I believed in the guy and realized that he was a young corner who would have his ups and downs in the beginning, while Murphy exceeded my expectations being more than a slot corner but a legit #1 corner

 

[Germz249]

Zach Allen - I feel has stepped up his play a bit more this season.

Kyler Murray - I didn’t expect him to be so good on the new Call of Duty game so quick.

Kliff Kingsbury - exceed my expectation. I expected he would have been caned by this point but he is doing a damn good job at keeping his job while doing a crappy job.

Steve Kiem - Same as Kliff

 

[Timm Rosenbach]

Zach Allen and Byron Murphy……are going to be very successful on other teams in the near future. Hard to pay guys when Kyler Murray is making a quarter of a billion dollars

 

[BritCard]

Zaven Collins can't win.

Linebacker is a tough position to get any credit at now. A lot of what they do right isn't flashy and fans only register the splash plays. A lot of those that do make splash plays like Devin White and Roquan Smith make a tonne of mistakes that go unnoticed.

The position has changed. Nobody uses linebackers like Ray Lewis and Junior Seau now. I wonder how they would stack up in the modern NFL with the amount of coverage work linebackers have to do.

The responsibility and area they need to cover has changed massively. Back in 2006 teams had 3 linebackers on the field nearly 60% of the time. It's now less than 24%. Two linebackers are being asked to do the job of 3 more and more.

One of the best linebackers in the league the last few years has been Demario Davis and I bet half the fans in the NFL outside New York and New Orleans have no idea who he is. He's probably been the best LB in the league for the last 4 years but has never made a Pro Bowl. Because he's not flashy.

I think Zaven is going to be very good. In a lot of ways this was his rookie season. He barely played last year. Still much more to come from him.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Zaven Collins is a tough one for me because I hope our expectations were higher than "not be a total bust."

I'm fine with the other three (DE Allen, CB Wilson, WR Dortch). I'd probably sub Collins out for... I dunno, J.J. Watt, who's only missed one game and been extremely effective all year.

Agree. Draft a guy 16 you better be landing a playmaker. At best he’s now an average ILB.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Mr. 'not a bust', short of injury, will end up with over 100 tackles and 4 or 5 sacks in his first full year at MLB.

Myjai has (9) nine tackles and two sacks at this point.

We all know numbers alone don’t indicate impact. McKinnon had numbers for days and wouldn’t have started on most defenses back in the day.

And if we are projecting #s let’s be honest about them. At present rate he’s projected for:

Tackles: 65 solo 39.7 assist for total of 104.7 (not an impressive number for an ILB)

Sacks: 2.8

Int: 1.4

TFL: 9.9

Forced fumbles: 1.4

Passes defensed: 4.7

These aren’t impressive numbers in a 17 game season particularly since they’re being wracked up on a terrible defense. So they aren’t even impactful.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Zaven Collins can't win.

Linebacker is a tough position to get any credit at now. A lot of what they do right isn't flashy and fans only register the splash plays. A lot of those that do make splash plays like Devin White and Roquan Smith make a tonne of mistakes that go unnoticed.

The position has changed. Nobody uses linebackers like Ray Lewis and Junior Seau now. I wonder how they would stack up in the modern NFL with the amount of coverage work linebackers have to do.

The responsibility and area they need to cover has changed massively. Back in 2006 teams had 3 linebackers on the field nearly 60% of the time. It's now less than 24%. Two linebackers are being asked to do the job of 3 more and more.

One of the best linebackers in the league the last few years has been Demario Davis and I bet half the fans in the NFL outside New York and New Orleans have no idea who he is. He's probably been the best LB in the league for the last 4 years but has never made a Pro Bowl. Because he's not flashy.

I think Zaven is going to be very good. In a lot of ways this was his rookie season. He barely played last year. Still much more to come from him.

This may be one of the worst posts regarding ILB play (other than pointing out Demario Davis) that I’ve ever seen.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

Zaven definitely, definitely made progress this year, which is good, because he under-achieved last year.

But he needs to take another step forward next year to live up to the his draft position, and to be part of the solution (as opposed to being part of the problem).

 

[Jetstream Green]

Just imagine how much better all these guys could play with a dominant DT in the interior of this defense

 

[cardpa]

I really don't see Zach Allen as exceeding expectations. Has he improved from last year, definitely. I think he has steadily improved each year and those improvements have been pretty linear to me. I think having Watt along side him has helped his play from last year because Watt does garner some attention away from Allen. What Allen hasn't had is that leap, that substantial improvement that would be described as significant.

I expected Allen to improve his sack rate and TFL and general play and he has done that. Has he gone from 4 sacks (2021) to say 8-10 sacks? That would be exceeding expectations. Right now he has 4.5 sacks with 5 games to go. If he continues at the same rate he will finish around 6 sacks.

I certainly think the team should try to retain him, however I also suspect he will test the market to get a feel for his worth which might be more than the team is willing to spend.