NFL

The 5 NFL Teams That Declined Most in 2016

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Feb 21st, 2017
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4. Arizona Cardinals

2015 nERD: 13.11
2016 nERD: 3.36
Change: -9.75

Similar to the Seahawks, the Arizona Cardinals still finished as one of the NFL's best teams by our metrics. They went from first in nERD in 2015 to sixth in 2016.

The brunt of the blame belongs to the offense, which went from 1st in both overall offensive efficiency and passing efficiency in 2015 to 16th and 20th, respectively. The run game ranked 8th in 2015 but fell to 19th in 2016.

Defensively, Arizona boasted the sixth-best unit overall, an improvement on the seventh-ranked finish from 2015.

The key difference between their drop-off and Seattle's is the on-field results. Arizona went 7-8-1 after a 13-3 season, thanks to a +56 point differential in 2016 after notching a +176 clip in 2015.

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