Pro Football Focus believes the Cardinals have one of the worst secondaries in the NFL. Despite having two Pro-Bowl caliber safeties, one of them being arguably the best in the league, they are ranked very low.

Despite the low ranking, they are still not the worst NFC West secondary according to PFF. Take a look at how the rest of the division stacks up with the Cardinals.

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The defending Super Bowl champions’ secondary is headlined by All-Pro corner Jalen Ramsey, but PFF believes the team has some minor question marks.

The Rams lost reliable starter Darious Williams in free agency to the Jaguars. Outside of Ramsey, the team is moving forward with a very young secondary. Here’s what PFF had to say about the Rams:

This ranking would look a lot different without Jalen Ramsey factoring in. The Rams’ secondary would be closer to Tier 5 than Tier 2 without him. That’s just how valuable elite cornerbacks are. Ramsey has averaged only 477 yards allowed per season in a Rams uniform despite routinely shadowing top receivers.

Ramsey is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, which takes a ton of pressure off his teammates and defensive playcallers. As long as he is in the lineup, it’ll be hard to take the Rams out of the top ten.

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The San Francisco 49ers made an incredible recovery late last season. They went from barely sneaking into the postseason to nearly defeating the Rams in the NFC Championship.

Part of that turnaround was the secondary finding a way to stabilize after a shaky start. PFF put them at right in the middle of the league, which seems fair given their vastly different performances last season.

Here’s what they had to say:

While this is only a ranking of secondaries, it should be noted that the 49ers’ pass defense as a whole should be expected to outperform this ranking thanks to Fred Warner and the NFL’s best group of cover linebackers. The X-factor here once again is Jason Verrett’s health. In the two seasons he was able to play 500-plus snaps in his NFL career, he earned coverage grades of 90.9 (2015) and 76.1 (2020).

The Cardinals find themselves at the bottom end of the NFL in this ranking. PFF criticized the front office for their lack of addressing the cornerback position this offseason, as their only addition was seventh-round rookie Christian Matthew.

The team was not linked to any of the premier free agents in the secondary, so it appears as if they are content with their young cornerback room, although they did sign former Minnesota Vikings first-round pick Jeff Gladney in the offseason, only to have him die tragically in a car accident. Byron Murphy and Marco Wilson are drawing a ton of trust from the front office.

The Cardinals have an argument for the best safety duo in the league with Budda Baker and Jalen Thompson. PFF still believes they are one of the worst overall units in the league, which seems a bit harsh given the talent of the back end alone.

The Cardinals finished 24th in team coverage grade last year, and for some reason, this unit went all but ignored over the course of the offseason. It wasn’t until they drafted cornerback Christian Matthew in the seventh round out of Valdosta State that they addressed this unit.

PFF was not kind to the Seattle Seahawks, who similar to the Cardinals, have a Pro-Bowl caliber safety room. Despite his flaws, Jamal Adams was once one of the better coverage safeties in the league and Quandre Diggs is a two-time Pro Bowler.

The cornerback room is very questionable, however. Justin Coleman has been a solid nickel corner before but there are question marks surrounding the other two starters. Here’s what PFF had to say:

This is quite easily the scariest-looking cornerback group on paper in the NFL. And not for opposing offenses. If there is any silver lining, it’s that 2021 fourth-rounder Tre Brown outperformed expectations, albeit in limited playing time. On 162 coverage snaps as a rookie, he allowed only eight catches on 17 targets for 75 yards while playing exclusively on the outside.

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