The Arizona Cardinals had a dreadful 2018 season. They were the worst team on offense in the league and struggled in many ways on defense. It led to huge changes. However, they weren’t bad at everything defensively.
While they struggled to stop the run, they did limit deep passes quite well.
According to Pro Football Focus, they allowed the third fewest yards on deep throws.
It makes sense. The secondary was one of their strengths. Between Patrick Peterson, Tre Boston, Budda Baker and Antoine Bethea, they kept plays in front of them.
The problem was they struggled to stop teams from running the football or from dinking and dunking their way down the field.
The secondary has been changed up a bit for 2019. Peterson and Baker return, although Peterson will be out the first six games of the year because of a suspension. They add safety D.J. Swearinger, rookie Byron Murphy, veteran Robert Alford and will either have David Amerson or Tramaine Brock replacing Peterson to start the year.
They hope to get back to being a top-10 defense like they were from 2015-2017. Ideally, they don’t go backwards in defending the deep ball while they attempt to do so.
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