Christian Kirk Says Cardinals Have Self-Imposed Ultimatum in 2021

There are some teams heading into the 2021 NFL season with higher expectations than others. One of those squads is the Arizona Cardinals, who spent the offseason throwing cash at free-agent veterans like J.J. Watt and A.J. Green to help complete the young core of Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins and others.

Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk, who enters his fourth NFL season in 2021, shares those high expectations around Arizona's camp. In fact, the young wide receiver even declared a self-imposed ultimatum for his team out in Arizona.

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"I think it's now or never for us. That's the attitude in the locker room. We finally feel like we have all the pieces to put it together and really make a push for the playoffs and for a championship. I know guys in the locker aren't expecting anything less than that. We know what opportunity we have at hand, and then we know we have to be better.

- Christian Kirk

It's quite clear from the quote above that Kirk and his fellow Cardinals mean business entering the season. This team has all of the pieces for a deep run. Last year, the very similar looking Cardinals offense finished top-six in the league with their 384.6 yards per game on offense. The defense did play a role in their average 8-8 finish, but they also added veterans like Watt, Malcolm Butler, Rodney Hudson and a rookie linebacker expected to start game one in Zaven Collins.

On paper, there's no reason the Cardinals shouldn't take a big step up from their 8-8 finish and fifth straight year outside of the playoff bracket. Their young franchise quarterback Murray enters his third NFL season after throwing for nearly 4,000 yards in each of his first two. Not to mention his 819 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.

Kirk slots into a scary group of wide receivers including Hopkins and Green as the likely No. 2 target. He finished second on the team with 79 targets last season while racking up 48 receptions for 621 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Despite all of the hype, the oddsmakers are betting against Arizona even making the playoffs. Currently, the Cardinals own -220 odds to miss out on playoff action for the sixth straight year while their Super Bowl odds sit at just +4400 on FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.