Cardinals coach: The Arizona Cardinals’ schedule was supposed to be favorable – it wasn’t.

We’re heading into year three of the Jonathan Gannon era of Arizona Cardinals football, and expectations have been raised substantially from what they normally would’ve been.

Gannon went 4-13 in his debut season in the desert — we should’ve expected as much. But then he went 8–9 last season and was contending for the playoffs for the first half of the season. No one saw that coming.

Now with an offseason where the Cardinals were able to make as many moves as they did to improve the defensive side of the football — the undeniable biggest weakness of the team — many more fans are excited about the potential of a playoff run.

Then, we saw the Cardinals’ 2025 schedule released.

Six games would be in division with the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. It’s a great division that will push the team, but they are winnable games if the roster successfully takes a step forward.

The Cardinals are set to play both the AFC/NFC South divisions. Each only had a single playoff team a year ago (The Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) with the other three teams finishing with a losing record, respectively.

Other games feature the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers. Cincinnati missed the playoffs despite a winning record. Dallas had a down year that has led to a head coaching change while Green Bay made the playoffs as the third-best team in the NFC North.

Looking at the schedule as a whole, Arizona is set to play a lot of bad football teams. The Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars all made selections in the top 10 of this year‘s draft.

The Falcons, Colts, and Cowboys also had losing records, and the division rival Niners finished beneath Arizona in the NFC West last season.

That gives the Cardinals a total seven out of division games with teams fresh off a losing record to go along with two more games against San Francisco.

All of those teams finished behind the Cardinals in the final league standings, too, for what it’s worth.

On paper, that should set Arizona up for great success and help make the playoff push that they have assigned for themselves.

Unfortunately, the NFL schedule makers didn’t feel like holding up their end of the bargain and schemed the Cardinals schedule to have several brutal points in the season.

That’s frustrating, putting it politely.

I have several issues with the way the schedule was put together, but none more so than the start and end of the year. Arizona opens this season on the road against the Saints. Considering New Orleans is assumed to be amongst the worst teams in the league in 2025, it’s nonetheless a road game for Arizona to open this season.

It always sucks to open the year on the road, but it’s even more frustrating to end your season on the road. The Cards were handed that “luxury” and delivered an extra slap in the face by finishing the season on the road against Cincinnati followed by a trip to Los Angeles.

How does that happen? And how is that fair to anyone?

It doesn’t stop there — not even close, because the last month and a half of the season features road games. Four of the last six games of the season are on the road. Two of those games are against playoff teams with another against the Bengals – who finished with a winning record.