Carson Palmer, Emerging David Johnson Make Cardinals Prime Super Bowl Contender

The NFL's best offense doesn't reside in Pittsburgh, Carolina or Foxborough. No, with just a fortnight remaining in the regular season, the Arizona Cardinals confirmed in a blowout road victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night that the best all-around offense in an offensive league belongs to them.

There have been no questions about quarterback Carson Palmer, who at 35 is putting together a career year. Palmer again steered the ship in Sunday's 40-17 victory in Philly, leading the Cards to their fourth consecutive turnover-free performance while posting a triple-digit passer rating for the 10th time this season.

Team	Total
Cardinals	8
Panthers	7
Bengals	7
Patriots	7
Steelers	7
Giants	6
Seahawks	6

But what's amazing is that the Cardinals continue to dominate with an unstoppable, balanced attack despite the fact they've been without their top two running backs in recent weeks.

Veteran star Chris Johnson was well on his way to another 1,000-yard campaign before suffering a fractured tibia in Week 12, an injury made worse by the fact the flashy Andre Ellington (who was averaging a ridiculous 6.9 yards per carry) suffered a toe injury that same day. 

Three weeks later, no ill effects, thanks mainly to rookie third-round pick David Johnson. The 24-year-old Northern Iowa product had just 27 carries during the first 11 weeks of the season but has rushed for 399 yards on 78 carries (5.1 yards per attempt) since being thrust into a starring role by default. 

Cardinals star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said of Johnson, via Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com, "He is very deceptive, fast and powerful and I think the nation got a chance to really see what he is capable of and it was fun to watch." 

With Palmer adding, "He’s not a guy you want to tackle 15, 16, 17, 18 times coming down at you."

Johnson picked up 187 yards on 29 carries Sunday night, adding 42 yards on four catches. Only three backs have had more yards from scrimmage in a game this season. He also scored three times, becoming the first Arizona back in three years to do so. 

Player	Yards
1. Antonio Brown	306
2. Thomas Rawls	255
3. Lamar Miller	236
4. Doug Martin	235
5. David Johnson	229
6. A.J. Green	227
7. DeAngelo Williams	225
8. Adrian Peterson	216

Next man up for an offense that continues to roll regardless of who's in the backfield. 

That's the beauty of this Bruce Arians-led offensive unit. It has been built to succeed in spite of injuries at basically any position except quarterback. 

As we saw last year, this team can't afford to lose Palmer. Few if any good teams can lose their starting quarterback and live to tell about it. But in Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, Michael Floyd and J.J. Nelson, Arizona has one of the deepest receiving corps in football. And when you've got a receiving corps like that and a line featuring veteran stars Mike Iupati and Jared Veldheer, your running game is going to rock regardless of who's getting the reps. 

Entering Week 15, Iupati was graded by Pro Football Focus as the fifth-best run-blocking guard in football, while Veldheer ranked 10th in that category among 75 qualified offensive tackles. 

"They have just been dominant," NBC's Cris Collinsworth said during the fourth quarter of Sunday's game, in reference to Iupati and Veldheer. "It's a lot of fun to play running back when you're not getting hit until somebody in the secondary—someone smaller—is the one that's hitting you."

That said, the young Johnson continues to look like a special case, as evidenced by one particular second-quarter touchdown run in which he was touched by at least six (and as many as eight) Eagles defenders. 

What's scary is they might eventually get Chris Johnson and/or Ellington back, at which point Arians and his staff will gain the ability to mix and match in order to keep defenses up in arms. Since October 2013, this team has gone 25-4 with Palmer under center. So don't expect them to slow down between now and the end of January. 

The Patriots look primed for another Super Bowl run, the Steelers are as explosive as any team in the NFL, and the 14-0 Panthers remain the class of the league, but Sunday's display at Lincoln Financial Field demonstrated there might not be a unit in football that deserves to be feared as much as Arizona's top-rated offense.  

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.