Where does Cardinals' WR depth chart rank in NFC after Zay Jones' signing?

There's palpable excitement in Arizona after Zay Jones signed for the Cardinals, propelling himself to the top of the depth chart with his new franchise. The team also drafted Marvin Harrison Jr., an NFL-ready wide receiver, with their first-round pick this year.

Fans will hope that this gives Kyler Murray the weapons to make a big push toward becoming competitive and making the playoffs. But the competition is fierce. For any run into the postseason to be considered a success, they will have to defeat other competitors in the NFC, including the defending conference champions, the San Francisco 49ers, whom they face twice in the NFC West.

Therefore, we decided to do an exercise to see how good does Zay Jones' addition to the Cardinals make them, especially within their conference. We took the depth chart of each NFC team from Ourlads.com and some other sources. We considered wide receiver trios of each team, taking the players who are expected to be top of the depth chart.

We considered only 2023 receiving yards statistics. While that may seem unfair to someone like Christian Watson of the Packers, who was beset with injuries, that seemed a fair method for us for someone coming back from a hiatus. For rookies, we used the following approximation:

• First Round pick = 1000 yards
• Second Round pick = 800 yards
• Third Round pick = 600 yards

Based on that we calculated where each time finished in terms of total yards from their top-rated slot receiver, right wideout, and left wideout. The table of that is given below.

NFC East			2023 Yards
Cowboys	LWR	Tolbert, Jalen	268
	RWR	COOKS, BRANDIN	657
	SWR	Lamb, CeeDee	1749
Total Cowboys			2674
Giants	LWR	Nabers, Malik	1000
	RWR	Slayton, Darius	770
	SWR	Robinson, Wan'Dale	525
Total Giants			2295
Eagles	LWR	Smith, DeVonta	1066
	RWR	Brown, A.J.	1456
	SWR	Parker, DeVante	394
Total Eagles			2916
Commanders	LWR	McLaurin, Terry	1002
	RWR	Dotson, Jahan	518
	SWR	McCaffrey, Luke	600
Total Commanders			2120
NFC North
Bears	LWR	Moore, DJ	1364
	RWR	Odunze, Rome	1000
	SWR	ALLEN, KEENAN	1243
Total Bears			3607
Lions	LWR	Williams, Jameson	354
	RWR	Raymond, Kalif	372
	SWR	St. Brown, Amon-Ra	1515
Total Lions			2241
Packers	LWR	Watson, Christian	422
	RWR	Doubs, Romeo	674
	SWR	Reed, Jayden	793
Total Packers			1889
Vikings	LWR	Jefferson, Justin	1074
	RWR	Addison, Jordan	911
	SWR	Powell, Brandon	324
Total Vikings			2309
NFC South
Falcons	LWR	London, Drake	905
	RWR	Mooney, Darnell	414
	SWR	Moore, Rondale	352
Total Falcons			1671
Panthers	LWR	Johnson, Diontae	717
	RWR	Legette, Xavier	1000
	SWR	THIELEN, ADAM	1014
Total Panthers			2731
Saints	LWR	Perry, A.T.	246
	RWR	Olave, Chris	1123
	SWR	Shaheed, Rashid	719
Total Saints			2088
Bucs	LWR	EVANS, MIKE	1255
	RWR	Palmer, Trey	385
	SWR	Godwin, Chris	1024
Total Bucs			2664
NFC West
Cardinals	LWR	Harrison Jr., Marvin	1000
	RWR	Wilson, Michael	565
	SWR	Jones, Zay	274
Total Cardinals			1839
Rams	LWR	Robinson, Demarcus	371
	RWR	Nacua, Puka	1486
	SWR	KUPP, COOPER	737
Total Rams			2594
49ers	LWR	Aiyuk, Brandon	1342
	RWR	Samuel Sr., Deebo	892
	SWR	Pearsall, Ricky	1000
Total 49ers			3234
Seahawks	LWR	Metcalf, DK	1114
	RWR	LOCKETT, TYLER	894
	SWR	Smith-Njigba, Jaxon	628
Total Seahawks			2636

The summary of the total yards is also given in the table below along with the rankings.

Team Total	Yards	Rank
Total Bears	3607	1
Total 49ers	3234	2
Total Eagles	2916	3
Total Panthers	2731	4
Total Cowboys	2674	5
Total Bucs	2664	6
Total Seahawks	2636	7
Total Rams	2594	8
Total Vikings	2309	9
Total Giants	2295	10
Total Lions	2241	11
Total Commanders	2120	12
Total Saints	2088	13
Total Packers	1889	14
Total Cardinals	1839	15
Total Falcons	1671	16

It immediately becomes clear that even with the addition of Zay Jones, the Cardinals are ranked towards the bottom of the NFC. In fact, only the Falcons do worse in total yards. Of course, if Darnell Mooney were suddenly to have a 1000-yard season as he did in 2021, that might change but he has not hit 500 yards for the past couple of seasons.

The bigger problem for the Cardinals, even after adding Zay Jone, is that everyone in their division in the NFC West is significantly ahead of them. All of them crack the top 10 of our wide receiver rankings in the conference. Therefore, while we do not want to put a dampener on the Cardinal's optimism going into the 2024 season, it may prove to be a slog. Of course, no model is a perfect prediction and they might yet surprise us.

Why are the Cardinals still slated to struggle despite adding Zay Jones?

Zay Jones had just 274 yards in eight games last season and he brings down the total for the Cardinals. Even if he does as well as he did in the 2022 season, that would net 823 yards. He has never had a year where he has reached 1,000 yards.

Therefore, while he is a good addition to the Arizona roster that is bereft of top players in the position, that does make the Cardinals one of the top wide receiver rooms in the league.