Cardinals hit with worst NFC title odds amid Kyler Murray injury

The Cardinals' NFC title odds aren't just worse than every other team, they're worse by a considerable amount.

At the time of writing, there are still 170 days left before the 2023 NFL season begins on September 7, 2023. However, it seems like there's no such thing as “too early” when it comes to making prognoses about the outcome of the upcoming season even though there remains plenty of work to be done in the offseason. Nonetheless, despite it being a time where every team has the same record of 0-0, the jury already seems to be out on Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals.

In particular, oddsmakers don't see any realistic path for the Cardinals to put up a stellar 2023 campaign and make a deep postseason run. As Kyle Odegard of Compare.bet pointed out, not a single team other than the Cardinals has worse odds than 35/1 (+3500) to win the NFC Championship. And it's not like the Cardinals' odds are just slightly worse — theirs stand at 85/1 (+8500) at the moment on FanDuel.

Of course, it's not too big a surprise that the oddsmakers aren't particularly bullish on Kyler Murray and the Cardinals' chances of turning things around. They won just four of their 17 games last year, the second-worst mark in the conference; to make matters worse, Murray is currently recovering from the torn ACL he suffered back in December. Moreover, the Cardinals also lost one of their best players after JJ Watt decided to hang up his cleats.

The Cardinals could very well face more roster turnover as we go deeper into the offseason. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins has been the subject of trade rumors aplenty, and talks among teams interested in the 30-year old wideout's services are reportedly “ramping up”, which signals that a deal could be on the horizon.

The change in their head coaching ranks after hiring Jonathan Gannon to replace Kliff Kingsbury also adds to the considerable turmoil the franchise is already in.

Still, given how bleak the Cardinals' future looks, +8500 odds may not be too far off from a fair projection. Nevertheless, it doesn't even come close to the odds Leicester City had when they won the Premier League during the 2015/16 campaign. They famously had 5000 to 1 odds (bet $50 to win $250,000). So the Cardinals shouldn't hang their heads over such a bearish prognosis.