The Cardinals last season won double-digit games for the first time since 2015. Kliff Kingsbury has increased his wins in each of his first three seasons (five, eight, and eleven). This year, however, we have a couple of interesting factors within this Arizona Cardinals team. With that being said, let’s go over this team for the 2022 season and come together and pick the win total for them. Does the Arizona Cardinals win over or under 8.5 wins?

Arizona’s Offensive Question Marks

Arizona will be without DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games of the 2022 season. Hollywood Brown got arrested for going 126 in a 65. Kyler’s receivers aren’t going to be there at the start of the season. This means they have to get the running game going like they did a season ago. They finished with the 10th most rushing yards in the league, and James Conner finished tied for second with 15 rushing touchdowns in 2021. I don’t think that Conner will have that type of success again this season.

The next part of evaluating this offense is through the offensive line. A lot of talent is there for the Cardinals; however, I think this offense is going to struggle early and often in the 2022 season. We saw how bad they looked in their playoff game last season. There is no way that this team has made improvements on offense with losing Hopkins for six games.

Defense Needs to Step Up

Arizona lost Chandler Jones via free agency and did not replace him, in my opinion. You have J.J. Watt, who, while on the field, is a top defensive end in the league, but he has only played in every game twice since 2016. At linebacker, they have two studs in Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins. In the secondary, they have Byron Murphy Jr and Budda Baker. However, I do think that this team wants to play a lot better than it did down the stretch last season. I don’t see how this team takes that step forward defensively with no improvements.

Over/Under 8.5 Wins?

Let’s take a look at the Arizona Cardinals schedule.

The first six weeks are a very tough stretch for Arizona. I see them winning against Carolina and Seattle. So that’s 2-4 through the first six weeks. Then going through weeks seven up to the bye week in week 13, I have the Cardinals winning against Seattle and San Francisco. That’s 4-8 through the first 12 games. In the final five games to end the regular season, I have Arizona winning against New England and Atlanta. Which would put their final record at 6-11. I do think there is potential for Arizona to steal a couple of games and get up to at least eight wins. However, I am taking the under 8.5-win total at -110 odds.

If you found this article helpful, check out other Belly Up Fantasy Sports articles at Belly Up Fantasy, and you can follow me on Twitter.