Arizona Cardinals Seating Chart

The Arizona Cardinals have been predicted to be the surprise team for what seems like every year over the past two decades, but they finally made it happen in 2008.

The Cardinals looked like a strong playoff contender for much of the season but then fell apart down the stretch, losing a few games by an embarrasingly high number of points.

What looked to be a very short playoff stay turned out to be anything but, as the Cardinals caught fire and quickly became the hottest team out of all of the teams in the postseason.

It's worth mentioning that quarterback Kurt Warner will be a year older and coming off of surgery while wide receiver Anquan Boldin is not happy with upper management and has demanded a trade.

Boldin is extremely popular among his peers, who seem to have no problem with his trade demands. Losing Boldin would be a huge blow to that explosive passing game.

Things will be tougher this year for the Cardinals, who get their bye very early on in the year (Week 4 to be exact). That means the team will have find a way to stay healthy and fresh without any time off for the final 13 weeks.

The Cardinals will take on the NFC North and AFC South in 2009, which should prove to be a small but insignificant challenge. The AFC South will be tough but the NFC North shouldn't be too terribly bad.

Arizona will have to fight through two straight road games against the Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants, two tough places to play. A trip to the East Coast doesn't usually go well, either.