Author
Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetArizona.com after covering sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
There’s no denying that much of the last decade has been tough to watch for fans of the Arizona Cardinals, with one playoff berth since 2016 and zero postseason wins in that span.
Fresh off consecutive 4-13 campaigns that saw the franchise get outscored by 234 points in total, Arizona’s road to respect on the gridirons of the NFL is long and winding, though second year head coach Jonathan Gannon and his staff are hopeful that 2024 is the year of the Cardinal. We'll also be tracking the Cardinals playoff chances all season long.
With first round draft pick Marvin Harrison Jr. looking to repeat his on-field exploits at Ohio State in the Valley, there’s some reason for optimism that this fall could be a redemption story for the franchise.
Utilizing DraftKings Arizona’s current win total for the 2024 NFL season, the Cardinals were found to be set at 6.5 wins (-150 over). Utilizing SportsReference.com, we found all teams with a 6.5-win total line in the last 10 NFL seasons and how they performed.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Under 6.5 Wins | 10 of 27 | 37.0% |
Over 6.5 Wins | 17 of 27 | 63.0% |
Make NFL Playoffs | 8 of 27 | 29.6% |
Make Divisional Round | 5 of 27 | 18.5% |
Make Conference Championship | 2 of 27 | 7.4% |
Make Super Bowl | 1 of 27 | 3.7% |
Win Super Bowl | 0 of 27 | 0.0% |
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2023 Texans | Lost in Divisional Round |
2023 Bucs | Lost in Divisional Round |
2022 Jags | Lost in Divisional Round |
2021 Bengals | Lost in Super Bowl |
2017 Jags | Lost in Conference Championship |
Since 2014, a grand total of 17 of the 27 teams that started the year with a win total over/under of 6.5 (or 63%) won seven or more games that year, while eight of them (or 29.6%) wound up in the playoffs that year.
Last season saw two such teams do just that in the Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with both falling in the Divisional Round after taking the league by surprise in the regular season.
This year, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals will look to follow in those team’s footsteps, while also looking up at the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals (who lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl that season) as the second team of the 27 that started the year with a win total of 6.5 to reach the Big Game during that stretch.
Doing so will require the Cardinals to hit the ground running, beginning with Arizona’s Week 1 road game against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 8 as Murray and his teammates hope to turn the tide in the Valley after consecutive 4-13 seasons that many in the 48th State would like to forget entirely.
Also of note: Marvin Harrison Jr. Rookie of the Year Odds 2024.
USA Today photo by Rob Schumacher.
Author
Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetArizona.com after covering sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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