The Arizona Cardinals are in their offseason and looking ahead to 2025.
But while we are in the offseason, it is time to look back at the 2024 season and give some recognitions for player performances.
On the podcast, we discussed player awards and superlatives. Now we will put our picks in written form.
We continue with the team’s comeback player of the year for 2024.
Who was the Cardinals’ comeback player of the year? Howard Balzer and I give our picks.
Jess Root: DL L.J. Collier
I could go with linebacker Kyzir White here, but my choice is Collier because he played in part of only one game in 2023 after what looked like a promising offseason. He came on a little slowly but finished the season with a career-high 3.5 sacks and was regularly disruptive over the second half of the season.
Howard Balzer: QB Kyler Murray
Yes, it’s true that 2023 could be considered Murray’s “comeback” year. However, playing a half season after rehabbing a torn ACL and learning a new offense was only the beginning of the comeback.
The 2024 season was the true comeback and while there surely were some spotty performances within games, most overlooked is that Murray started and played all 17 games, making it the first of his six seasons in which there weren’t any injury issues during the year.
Overall, his 68.8 percent completion percentage was seventh in the NFL, his 3,851 yards ranked 11th and his 21 touchdown passes tied for 13th. Most notably, Justin Herbert had 23, Jayden Daniels and Jordan Love 25 and Patrick Mahomes 26.
Murray’s 572 yards rushing was fourth among NFL quarterbacks and his five TDs was in between Lamar Jackson’s four and Daniels’ six.
He and the offense have to be more consistent on third down and the fourth quarter, and if they do that and win more games than this year’s eight, it’s likely he will be the team MVP in 2025.
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