Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
After a decent rookie season on a bad team, Arizona Cardinals‘ wide receiver Michael Floyd will be going into a much different situation in 2013. Things have changed in Arizona. There are no longer two average-at-best quarterbacks fighting to win the starting job every week. The Cardinals went out and traded for Carson Palmer, and they brought in a new head coach for a much needed change of pace. Now with Bruce Arians running the team, and a decent quarterback to get him the ball, things are starting to look up for Floyd.
He ended up with 45 catches and 562 yards receiving last year, which isn’t too bad for a rookie season. He only found the end zone on two occasions, but no one was finding the end zone in Arizona last year. Given the situation, I think you have to call Floyd’s rookie campaign a success. Receivers that are taken in the top-15 of the draft are usually expected to put up higher numbers out of the gate, but amassing nearly 600 yards isn’t too shabby.
But with the improvements to the Cardinals’ offense, comes higher expectations. Floyd is clearly a player that fans will expect to improve this year, and if he doesn’t, the dreaded b-word will start to get thrown around. That’s the last thing any fan wants to hear about a first round draft pick, but it’s still way too early to tell what kind of NFL player Floyd will be.
Arians did recently comment that he thinks his sophomore wide receiver is more than capable of breaking out in 2013:
“I am really happy with him. I see him making leaps and bounds getting better. He’s very serious about what he does. He doesn’t like to make mistakes. He’s totally bought in and if he just continues to improve his fundamentals he’s another guy who can have a breakout year.”
