Arizona Cardinals have been bitten by the injury bug almost more than any team

We know the story of the Arizona Cardinals under Bruce Arians.

They we’re injuries away from what feels like a Super Bowl berth in 2014.

However, they also had quite a few injuries to deal with in Arians final season in 2017.

The Cardinals the last decade had two of the top nine seasons decimated by injuries, 2014 and 2017.

Pro Football Focus discussed the impact of injured players and how much that likely hurt teams.

From PFF:

That’s where WAR-Adjusted Injuries Lost (WAIL) comes into play. WAIL takes each player’s projected Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for each game of the season and calculates the WAR lost due to injury based on a player’s status on the injury report.

So, where did those seasons fall?

The devastation of missing Carson Palmer and Tyrann Mathieu in 2014 may have been the difference in the one seed, a bye week and playing in the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the 2017 season where they didn’t have Palmer for most of the season is likely the difference in the Cardinals being in the playoffs.

While there is still no way to prove those injuries are the reason for lost seasons from the Cardinals, this is a painful reality we knew about and now have some biased confirmation on.