8 NFL execs rank NFC teams

[daves]

The Athletic yesterday published NFL execs' rankings of NFC teams. They were pretty brutal to the Cards, with the average and median rank being 11th and the individual votes: 6, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, and 15 (!).

Overall, the Rams were 5th, 49ers 7th, and Seahawks 9th, with a big gap in average vote (-2.4) to the Cardinals in 10th.

Quotes from the execs:

“They are good enough to stay in games.... They will be relevant until the fourth quarter, and more times than not, they will not be able to close games out. Whether it be a turnover, the inability to get a stop. They can be exciting to watch. Kyler Murray is very talented and can make some things happen. But I don’t know that they have enough from a team makeup standpoint to close games out.”

“I think they’re a team that could beat teams that people wouldn’t expect them to beat.... And then I expect (Jonathan) Gannon to continue to do well molding that defense to his liking. But losing Nolen to that injury, I expected him to be an impact player, so to have him not practice all of camp and be out the first few weeks is going to hurt his development.”

 

[kerouac9]

Brutal.

 

[DVontel]

I understand the Rams & Niners being ahead of us, but Seattle….they do realize KOC did not come along with Darnold, right?

 

[MadCardDisease]

This is only 8 NFL execs and not execs from every team.

The eight execs, whose backgrounds range from personnel evaluation to contracts/salary cap and analytics/strategy ranked every team in each conference on the condition of anonymity.

 

[legend]

Was Steve Keim one of the eight . . . ?

 

[eastcoastDave]

Sports Illustrated ranked the Cardinals 18th, far below all other teams in the West. This is about as low as any ranking I’ve seen. Apparently there is little faith among the national sports press that the Cardinals have improved any from last year.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Sports Illustrated ranked the Cardinals 18th, far below all other teams in the West. This is about as low as any ranking I’ve seen. Apparently there is little faith among the national sports press that the Cardinals have improved any from last year.

SI only produces fan based articles these days.