Searching for Next Year's Arizona Cardinals

The 2008 season is over already, it seems like just yesterday I was watching the Bears beat the Colts.

This season was full of highs and lows for many teams and tons of surprises. Tom Brady goes down for the season in Week One, the Broncos lose a playoff spot by losing a three game lead with only three games left, the Detroit Lions lose all 16 games for the first time in NFL history and maybe the most unexpected the Arizona Cardinals played in the Super Bowl.

The Card's were not the favorite to win the NFC at the beginning of the season, to say the least. After a hot start the Card's were at 7-3 and in the drivers seat in the horrid NFC West.

Then they backed into the playoffs while finishing 2-4 and were expected by everyone to be bounced from the tourney on wild card weekend. They would get hot and go on to beat the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles on their way to the teams first ever Super Bowl appearance only to lose a close game to the heavily favored Steelers. (Congratulations to the Steelers and their fans on No. 6.)

While the Card's run was completely unexpected it has to give other teams around the league a new sense of hope and wondering what if that was us. The top contenders for "next year's Arizona Cardinals" start with...

10. Cleveland Browns

The Browns finished the 2008 season with a 4-12 record and finished last in the AFC North. They failed to score an offensive touchdown in the final 6 games of the season.

The Browns play in a very competitive division with the Steelers and the Ravens, however the Ravens are not getting any younger on defense and could possibly lose Ray Lewis to free agency. Next years schedule they play the NFC North and the AFC West, if they can split with those two divisions and go 3-3 within the NFC North that would give them a 7-7 record with games against the Jags and Bills remaining. They could easily be 9-7 and make the tourney as a Wild Card.

9. San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers had a 7-9 record last year but seemed to click under new head coach Mike Singletary by winning 5 of the last 7 and could have very possibly stole the NFC West from Arizona had Michael Robinson punched it in on from the one yard line against the Cards in week 10. That would've put Arizona at 8-8 and S.F. at 8-8. The bottom line is someone gets into the playoffs from the worst division in every sport and someones gotta do it in this one.

The Niners could possibly go 5-1 in the division but are also capable of going 1-5 so i'll give em 4-2, they also face off against another week division with the NFC North say 2-2. If they go 0-4 against the AFC South which is very possible that leaves games against the Falcons, and Eagles. If they split those two that makes them 7-9 again but the Card's play a very similar schedule, we could possibly be looking at a 7-9 playoff team next year.

8. Jacksonville Jaguars

The offensive line was an achilles heal for the dissapointing Jags team last year as they finished 5-11. Look for Jack Del Rio to fix those problems and possibly find another HB to replace the aging Fred Taylor.

This team could easily get back to the form of the 2007 team. I can 100% see them sweeping the NFC West and taking up to three games from the AFC East. Even if they lose 4 games within the division that would put them at 9-5 with games against Cleveland and Kansas City which should both be wins making them 11-5. Look for the AFC South to be the most competitive division in the league next year.

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