The 10 Best NFL Teams of the Last Decade
2. 2015 Arizona Cardinals
nERD: 14.70
Record: 13-3, lost NFC Championship
If you watched All or Nothing, you know just how good this team was last year in order to justify this high of a ranking and nERD score. In a season that seemed destined for greatness, the 2015 Arizona Cardinals put a potent mix of youth and veteran savvy together to romp through the regular season and deep into the playoffs.
It all begins with the offense. The Cardinals led the league with a 0.19 Adjusted Offensive NEP per play mark, and quarterback Carson Palmer put together the top Total NEP score among quarterbacks, coming in second on a per-play basis in Passing NEP. Third-round rookie running back David Johnson showed flashes of Marshall Faulk in just his first year, and he too took the top overall spot at his position in Total NEP. While no receiver earned a top-10 berth for the Cardinals, all three of Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, and Michael Floyd were in the top-30 of receivers in this metric.
But the defense were no slouches, either. They lost starting defensive back Tyrann Mathieu to yet another ACL tear, but managed to pull off a seventh-best Adjusted Defensive NEP per play rank nonetheless. Cornerback Patrick Peterson had a bounce-back and Pro Bowl-worthy year, edge rusher Dwight Freeney had a career revival with 8 sacks in just 11 games, and defensive lineman Calais Campbell dominated opposing lines for 61 tackles and 5 sacks.
The Cardinals were just simply outdone by the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship game. The Panthers had the second-ranked defense in the league last year, and they baffled Palmer all day, while the less analytically efficient, but still-dangerous rushing offense blew out Arizona, 49-15.
