Well, I guess this is what happens when you are perpetually saying "this is the year" and yet the team never seems to get over the hump, but still, you've got to be kidding me.

Sports Illustrated Pro Football columnist Peter King published his pre-season power rankings today, and as I scanned the list it wasn't until I got to 30th, yes 30th, to find the Cardinals. The only two teams Peter King ranked below our Arizona Cardinals were the pathetic Cleveland Browns who will likely see Romeo Crennel fired this year and the Minnesota Vikings, a team that I personally think is going to surprise a lot of teams in the NFC North.

Now, before I go off let me qualify this by saying I read Peter King, have for years and generally find his column both entertaining and amusing. However, he is based in New Jersey, has his network of teams and coaches he likes, particularly the Giants and Jets who always seem to get a mention in his columns, and he rarely if ever steps foot in Arizona to really check out the team other then possibly a half a day camp visit. I don't blame the guy for not knowing what is going on in Phoenix, and i'm sure he has little or no regard for the Bidwill family after covering the NFL as long as he has. They haven't earned the respect of NFL writers as they have been one hollow promise after another for almost their entire stay here in Arizona.

However, how any professional football writer could look at this team, and this new coaching staff and conclude that teams such as Tampa, Oakland, Houston, Green Bay, the Redskins, Buffalo, Miami, Tennessee, the NY Giants and the Detroit Lions are ahead of the Cardinals just isn't doing his home work. Tampa is a mess at QB and has an aging defense devoid of play makers, Oakland has utterly untested QB's and a novice head coach, Houston is a total mess, Green Bay is one blind side sack away from Farve going to the bench for good, the Redskins haven't shown a thing in the two years of the current Joe Gibbs regime, Buffalo lost 3 franchise players and have JP Losman at QB, Miami is going to battle with who at QB? Tennessee got their QB almost no receiving help, lost their best corner and starting RB, the Giants lost Tikki Barber and are two losses away from quiting on their coach and the Detroit Lions, Mr. King's darlings from a year ago, have once again drafted a receiver that has Jon Kitna throwing to him. Oh thats right, they have Mike Smarts as the offensive coordinator so they are just going to light it up this year. Please, give me a break here. Peter King actually has the Detroit Lions as his 13th best team, and the St. Louis Rams at 11th!

But lets not rip on the other teams, lets instead take a few minutes to educate Mr. King and the other savants of the East Coast media exactly what is going on out here in the desert as they ignore the Cardinals.

1. We hired a smart, low key, tough minded coach who isn't about sound bites and instead wants to build a ball control offense with a solid O-Line and a tough, swarming defense. Sounds a lot like the last coach we had who got us to the play offs, Vince Tobin, who never got the credit he deserved for the job he did but instead took the fall when the Bidwill family had an internal power structure, signed Jake Plummer to an insane contract and then had to dump salary the next year and basically tore apart the heart of the team by releasing or not paying Lomas Brown, Larry Centers and Jamir Miller. They crippled the heart of the team that was built to succeed by horrible cap management and internal squabbles but Vince Tobin was a good to very good head coach. I think Coach Whisenhunt is going to be much along the same vein in that he is all about coaching and very little about self promotion.

2. We have one of the best, if not the best, young quarterback in the NFL in Matt Lienart and he will now have stability at the offensive coordinator position with a real head coach, a coherent offensive line strategy and some actual play calling ability. What he was thrown into last year, with a head coach that mailed in the season, two offensive coordinators in a single season, and some of the worst play calling I have ever witnessed in the NFL, and yet was still able to almost beat Chicago and Kansas City and post very good first year numbers is remarkable. He's going to be a VERY good NFL quarterback, he's all about winning and that position is going to be set. Which leads me to point number 3.

3. With Kurt Warner as our back up we have the best number two QB in the NFL. What Kurt had to deal with last year with that putrid O-Line and offensive system was pathetic. Thankfully they pulled him before Leonard Davis and the rest of that line got him killed. While I hope Matt Leinart has a great season, if he is knocked out or pulled we now have a two time MVP and Super Bowl winner and the leagues most accurate passer in NFL history ready to go in. I can only imagine what Kurt might do with a real O-Line, a ball control offense and throwing to Boldin, Fitzgerald and Johnson for a full year. The point is we are not vulnerable at the most important position in the NFL game and King makes no mention of that fact.

4. We have arguably the best trio of WR's in the NFL. Boldin and Fitzgerald are both Pro-Bowl players and Bryant Johnson is coming off his best year of his career. If anyone saw the play calling last year, if you actually attended games and watched the field, you saw that there are almost no teams in the NFL that can cover all three wideouts if the QB was given any time to pass. The issues with the O-Line and play calling were crippling to the passing game, but we STILL had three receivers with over 200 catches between them, with Boldin having 83 by himself. If we have any kind of an O-Line or running game, the receivers on this team could have career years for average yards per catch and touchdowns.

5. This leads to discussion of our running game. We do still have a healthy, productive Edgerrin James on the team. If he got one hand off where he didn't have a DL or LB in the back field with him most of last year I sure don't remember it, and while people complain about his yards per carry average of 3.4, I think that was amazing considering the horrible offensive line play and predictable play calling. Most fans could watch a Cardinals game last year and pretty much call the run play before he touched the ball just by how they lined up and down and situation, so i'm sure it was pretty easy for other teams to do as well. In addition to James we have a real blocking fullback in Terrelle Smith, a healthy Marcell Shipp as a good change of pace back, and maybe J.J. Arrington can do something in the new system, but I wouldn't count on him based on the last two years. The point is we have the right running backs to run the new coaches power system and our running game should be solid and productive compared to last year.

6. This leads me to the discussion of the O-Line. Ok, we all know those guys last year were horrible as a unit. Denny and his staff messed that group up like nothing i've seen in the last ten years of watching the NFL. Leonard Davis was out of position, the centers were undersized and bowled over, and the rest of the group was either over it's head or in a scheme where they had no idea who to block on what play. It was a disaster. Enter Russ Grimm, considered one of the NFL's finest O-Line coaches, the addition of Mike Gandy, Al Johnson and Levi Brown provide depth that was badly lacking and this O-Line should be acceptable this year. I wouldn't dare hope for more then that, but I honestly believe the offensive scheme of the last staff was so bad, the coaching so messed up and the play calling so substandard that even a good team or line would have looked below average. I don't believe the line is far away from being average, and folks, average is about 50% better then what we had last year. The only thing that scares me is we are really weak at the tight end position, but hopefully the use of a blocking fullback with help cover up that area of concern.

7. Defense. While i'm nervous about the transition to the 3-4 as we really don't have the type of DE's that you typically want for that alignment, I do think we have a good defensive line with Okefer, Dockett, Watson, Berry, Allan Branch and Antonio Smith. Good, not great. The linebackers should get a big upgrade by dumping Orlando Huff and bringing in a guy like Buster Davis, while moving a stud like Dansby inside. The front seven should be able to do a much better job of stuffing the run and avoiding the big plays they gave up in past years, while funneling runners to a group of corners and safeties that can all really hit and tackle well. If we have a weakness it is in coverage but the defense should take a big step up from it's ranking in the bottom 10 from last year and if it returns to it's prior years top ten ranking we could really have something.

8. Special teams. We already have a former pro-bowl punter, a pro-bowl kicker and a top quality long snapper. Those are the key starting pieces. The new staff has made a point of re-signing good special teams guys such as Shipp and Hannik Milligan, as well as going out and getting other special team killers off the free agency market like Sean Morrey. No these don't make big headlines, but they do build up the weakest area for the Cardinals last year, and that was special teams. If Rackers goes back to his pre-2006 form and the special teams do a 30% better job on field position that could be worth 3 wins right there, if not more. No one talks about it but special teams play is going to be a key area of improvement for the Cardinals this year and thats the difference between a 4 win team and an 8 win team right there.

Ok, so lets wrap it up for Mr. King and the rest of the writers who have already dismissed the Cardinals. We play in a division with one team, SF, that is very young and is one Frank Gore injury away from being very average to bad again. Another team, Seattle that didn't address it's O-Line issues and is another year older and not dramatically improved, and St. Louis that other the Mark Bulger and Stephen Jackson doesn't really have much on either side of the ball that scares you. Every team in this division is right at the same level as the Cardinals this year and 4 or 5 division wins isn't out of the question. Toss in games against Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, Tampa Bay and Atlanta and I can see a 7 to 9 win season as very likely.

I'll bet Mr. King one of his favorite coffee-nerd drinks when he comes out to Arizona for the owners meeting in the spring that the Cardinals finish, in the top 16 of his power rankings by the end of the year.

Original post by Eli Wahlstrom

Join the discussion at The Fanster Forums. Arizona Sports 24/7.