3 takes on the 2026 Cardinals schedule

A view of State Farm Stadium seats (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Arizona Cardinals knew that, despite being one of the fourth-place finishers in last year’s regular season, their schedule this year wasn’t going to be an easy one. In fact, it is the third most difficult based on the 2025 win-loss records of their upcoming opponents. Part of the issue is the fact that three of their division mates all made the playoffs with very good records.

And that accounts for six of the Cardinals’ 17 games. RELATED: INSTANT PREDICTIONS FOR 2026 CARDINALS GAMES And now that the schedule has been approved and is public, what is going on with Arizona? Their opponents were already announced months ago, but are now aligned.

What have we learned? Right out of the gate Great googly moogly. Are you kidding?

Right off, the NFL is giving the most ardent dance lessons to the one-legged man. In the first seven games, they play both #1 seeds from last year’s post-season, five playoff teams, and another who won 15 games the year before. And even the New York Football Giants are going to be much improved based on the fact that John Harbaugh is now their head coach.