Voice of The Cardinals

SI's Peter KingThis was a post by Eli on MVN.com

Before I get into my post, I should tell you all that I'm a little frustrated right now because I'm watching a replay of the Chicago Bears vs Arizona Cardinals MNF game. Nothing has changed obviously, the Cardinals are still about to lose, Urlacher hasn't been blocked, Devin Hester still took it to the house, and yes, Neil did just pull the field goal wide left again. Bad idea on my part to write a post while watching this game. Lesson learned, I won't do that again.

Alright, that Bears loss was a thing of the past and the future is bright. But apparently Sports Illustrated's Peter King doesn't think so.  Peter just came out with his NFL power rankings for 2008(click here for link). King ranked the Arizona Cardinals 21st out of the 32 teams in the NFL. I don't know if I should be delighted or upset about this. 21st doesn't sound that great, but when you compare it to Mel Kipers prediction that Arizona will be the worst team in the NFL, and to the 30th ranking King gave the Cardinals last year, It's not that bad. When I saw King rank the Cardinals 30th last year I was livid. But I calmed down and remembered he doesn't decide who wins the games. The Cards were able to finish 16th and prove Peter wrong. I believe they'll do the same thing this season. Here's King explaining why he doesn't have Arizona ranked higher...

"Paul Zimmerman wanted me to put the Cards higher. But I don't know who's playing quarterback, nor how good that quarterback will be. I don't know how much Edgerrin James has left coming off a 3.8-yards-per-carry season. I do know a defense that allowed a gaudy 399 points will be a little better because of the arrival of Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie at corner. But every year for the past three or four, some wise man in the media (I think it was me two years ago) says, "This is Arizona's year.'' And in the last four of those Arizona years, the Cards have gone 6-10, 5-11, 5-11 and 8-8."

I think King makes a legit argument, who knows how well Matt Leinart will play. He could live up to the hype and take the Cards to the playoffs, or he could completely bomb and be replaced by Kurt Warner mid way through the season. Matt's really going to be the wild card this year. I know there's going to be other question marks on the team, but it's really going to come down to him. I personally see the Cardinals in the top 15 even with the instability at quarterback.  Arizona has their core players coming back from last season, plus a few additions to add some depth where they didn't have it last year. I'm not so much worried about Edgerrin James as I am with the offensive line. I love what Russ Grimm did last year but they're still not incredibly strong and deep across the line. Hopefully another year together will prove to be valuable.

I can see where Peter King is coming from and I think he was a little more fair with his prediction this season. But I'd have to disagree with old Pete and show my bias by putting Arizona in the top half of the league for the 2008 season. But what does it matter what him and I think, we're not the ones that get to decide the outcome. Even though I'm usually right and he's usually wrong. It's true!