Arizona Cardinals midseason report card: C

MIDSEASON REPORT CARD

--PASSING OFFENSE: C -- Carson Palmer hasn't been awful, but he hasn't been nearly as sharp or as dangerous as he was a year ago when he set multiple career highs and franchise records and was an MVP candidate. What's missing the most in the Cardinals' passing game is the lack of production on long pass plays. Palmer spent much of the first half of the season underthrowing his targets. Their timing was off. It didn't help that No. 2 man Michael Floyd had a disastrous first half, highlighted by dropped balls. Larry Fitzgerald is having another Pro-Bowl season and it has helped tremendously that second-year running back David Johnson has contributed as many positive yards in the passing game as he has. The development of receiver J.J. Nelson has been encouraging, as he has climbed up the depth chart at lightning speed in recent weeks. Injuries to Jaron Brown (torn ACL) and John Brown (muscle fatigue because of sickle-cell trait), however, not to mention IR designations of tight ends Troy Niklas and Ifeanyi Momah to season-ending wrist injuries have cut into one of the biggest depth strengths among all positions.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: C-plus -- As good as David Johnson has been -- and he has been Pro Bowl good -- the overall numbers haven't been there this season for the Cardinals midway through the season. Johnson is third overall in the league with 705 yards and his eight rushing touchdowns are tied for second. Arizona, though, only ranks 13th in the NFL in rushing yards (112.8 per game). There have been some concerns that Johnson's workload might be a bit too taxing and that his body will start to break down toward the end of the season. If that happens, the Cardinals could be in a real world of hurt. Andre Ellington has been used very infrequently, is an injury risk himself, and the Cardinals had to play veteran Chris Johnson on injured reserve earlier in the year. It has yet to be determined if he or safety Tyvon Branch will be activated off IR once both players are eligible.

--PASS DEFENSE: B-minus -- The Cardinals are third against the pass, allowing just 195 yards per game. Outside linebackers Chandler Jones and Markus Golden started out the year on fire, each registering sacks in every game for the first month and a half of the season. It's the first time in recent history that Arizona has featured two legitimate edge rushers who can get to the quarterback and cause massive disruption in the opponents' backfield. Those two players were a little hit and miss, however, as the end of the first half drew to a close. Defensive tackle Calais Campbell has played well, but not good enough to earn the hefty new contract he'd love to get to stay with the Cardinals. The secondary has been hit with an assortment of injuries and now Tyrann Mathieu has joined the list of walking wounded. Safety D.J. Swearinger has been an unsung hero on defense and fellow safety Tony Jefferson might be the team's defensive MVP to this point.

--RUSH DEFENSE: C -- This unit ranks 13th overall in the league, allowing 102.1 yards per game. "Money" linebacker Deone Bucannon, with 65 tackles, is on pace to finish with 130 for the season. Safety Tony Jefferson has also come up big and is on track for a 108-tackle campaign. The rush defense has been gashed only a couple of times this season, but tackling continues to be an issue from week to week. The good news here is the Cardinals are constantly getting penetration up front by multiple players and that has led to broken plays, negative runs and turnovers. But as general manager Steve Keim noted publicly, this is a unit that doesn't always play with the energy and passion that it is known for and that's troubling for a team that was viewed as preseason Super Bowl contenders.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: D -- Without question, this has been the weakest link of the team. Coach Bruce Arians has blamed this unit directly for two of the team's four losses and he is correct in saying so. The starting long snapper already has been replaced, the team is on its second punter and Arians has come very close to losing his patience with kicker Chandler Catanzaro, who has missed two game-winning field goals, including a chip shot in overtime that led to a 6-6 tie against Seattle. The return game, meanwhile, has been nonexistent. Andre Ellington has made too many mistakes with bringing kickoffs out of the end zone when he just should have taken a knee. No one has been able to do anything on punt returns either. Patrick Peterson has had his chances, but he hasn't been remotely dangerous there since his rookie Pro Bowl season.

--COACHING: C -- Arians has been called many things and mostly all of them good. He has been described as a "quarterback whisperer" and an offensive genius by former and present peers and players. He'll be the first to admit, however, that something isn't quite right this season. The offense is OK, but it looks like a shadow of itself compared with last season. He also has made some questionable game-time decisions that have backfired. Challenges, non-challenges, timeouts, play calls. There have been enough gaffes to more than warrant a C. Other coaching deserve some blame as well, particularly special teams coach Amos Jones, who might not be back after this season. Communication problems also continue to haunt the Cardinals on both sides of the ball, from Carson Palmer working with his receivers to the back end of the secondary not being lined up correctly to make proper adjustments and to virtually every offensive lineman, all of whom have been battling simple technique issues that keep leading to mental mistakes.

--OVERALL: C

Most Valuable Player: Running back David Johnson. If the Cardinals were leading the NFC West Division or were among the conference's top contenders as expected, Johnson would be a sure-fire midseason most valuable player candidate. Despite being held to a season-low 24 rushing yards on Sunday by Carolina, Johnson enters midseason as the league's third-leading rusher (705 yards) and top-ranked player in yards from scrimmage (1,112). With 108 total yards against the Panthers, Johnson extended his franchise record for consecutive games with 100-plus yards from scrimmage to start a season (now at eight games), which is the longest active streak in the league. In only his second season, Johnson has made head coach Bruce Arians start to spin the offense more to the run and although the results haven't been coming on the scoreboard, it has made the Cardinals an even more dangerous offense to defend.

Most Disappointing Player: Wide receiver Michael Floyd. It has to be Floyd. In a contract year, this was supposed to be the season in which he shined his brightest, but so far, multiple dropped passes in multiple key points of games have not only dropped his salary stock, but his value in the passing game. Floyd has been benched on a couple of occasions already and has seen youngsters such as J.J. Nelson and Jaron Brown get more regular snaps and targets. With Jaron Brown now lost for the season because of ACL surgery and John Brown dealing with muscle fatigue in his legs caused by the sickle-cell trait, Floyd has eight games left to right his season and make himself an attractive free-agent wideout. He'll get the big contract he covets at some point, but it most likely won't come from the Cardinals and it won't be as pricey as he hopes if he doesn't have a second-half surge.

Most Surprising Rookie: Defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche. The team's first-round pick, he looked like a complete steal when he fell to the Cardinals with the No. 29 overall selection -- mostly because of an off-the-field incident in which synthetic marijuana was involved and he fell out of a hotel window before the NFL combine. A high ankle sprain at the start of training camp set him back, as did a aggravation of the injury once the season started, but head coach Bruce Arians harped on Nkemdiche relentlessly for making far too many mental errors in practice each week. It led to multiple inactive designations for the young, talented pass rusher, who has yet to show his real value to a team that was counting on it in a supposed Super Bowl-or-bust season.