|
8:45 pm ET Day
3
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- With Burney
and LeFeged apparently surviving Round 7, the Cards veered toward WR
instead, selecting big San Diego St. receiver,
DeMarco Sampson. As is often
the case with 7th rounders and UDFA's, Sampson had a special story
to tell. Injuries turned a normal college football career to a
6½-year epic; making him a 24 or 25-year old rookie. He's a big
fella (6-2 204) who - despite scout-service criticism of his lack of
speed, he ran a pair of 4.41's at his Pro Day (which isn't exactly
chopped liver). The perceived lack of speed (along with early
academic struggles) earned him position-rankings in the 30's; so
we're guessing there's a back story yet to be told about how he was
able to run in the low 4.4's.
The selection of Sampson wraps up this year's
draft; leaving the Cardinals still in search of QB stability, help
along the O-line and a proven edge-rusher or two. The team will look
to free-agency to address these problems (although the current
lockout legal logjam threatens to delay UDFA, Veteran FA and Trading
activity). With respect to position-holes, the Cardinals are kind of
in a state of Limbo.
That about wraps things up. it's been real. Check
out the Highlights Page for events as
they unfold during the offseason.
4:30 pm Day 3
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- With
Herzlich, Burney and a couple of QB's (McElroy and Devlin) still on my Day 3 Board the Cards
drafted a DT David Carter from
UCLA, whom I had listed but had nothing in the way of write up.
(After a bit of scrambling I was able to come away with a small
amount of info which points to a pretty good but not sensational guy
ranked around #30 among a deep group of talented DT's this season).
Strange pick. Whoops! Looks like McElroy is about to come off the
board (possibly to the Rams). Nope! They showed him smiling
answering the phone, but no one took him (yet).
4:00 pm Day 3
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- Sitting
atop my Day 3 Board when the Cards picked
at #171 was (fanfare!) Quan
Sturdivant whom the Cards leaped on. Sturdivant was projected to
be an ILB but I have him listed as an outside backer. He's barely
6-1 and weighs under 240. He is not without his flaws (including a
weed offense in his background) but comes from a well-coached
program and projects as a smart, instinctive but not terribly
athletic player who could eventually start in the NFL if he accepts
good coaching.
Cards pick again in this round and I'm still
thinking a QB (McElroy, Devlin or Tyrod Taylor). Then, too, Burney,
Herzlich and LeFeged are still undrafted. Stay tuned.
2:15 pm Day 3
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- With the
remainder of the Day 3 Board resembling a
paper plate with few remnant cracker crumbs scattered on it, the
Cards once again zigged instead of zagging. They passed on such
names as Sturdivant, Herzlich and Burney to draft UConn FB
Anthony Sherman. He caught
my eye during post-season. Why a fullback? Here's what I think: In
drafting Housler, they got a pass-catching TE who isn't expected to
block much. This could mean a reaffirmation of a two-back/one TE
offense (rather than emphasizing a one-back/3 wideout set).
We have two picks in Round Six - Guys I've got my
sights on include: QB/WR Tyrod Taylor, QB's Pat Devlin and Greg
McElroy, S Joe Lefeged and ILB Mike Mohammad.
1:00 pm Day 3
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- I had
Matthews, McCarthy and Acho at the top of my
Day 3 Board. Cards took Acho. Reviews are mixed on him - his
Combine numbers (including a 4.6? forty) were OLB-caliber, but
reports point to stiffness and lack of quick first steps. Even his
Senior Bowl write-ups were mixed, with one guru saying he got shut
out and another saying he looked good. So go figure. Meanwhile,
after the Cardinal pick, guys like Matthews, Gates, Brewer, Shorts
and Salas are flying off the boards. Catch you later.
10:30 am Day 3
--Holmdel, NJ -- April 30, 2011 -- Wow! I
thought I was being rough on the Cardinals after their 3rd pick last
night, but the Cardinal fan boards were absolutely on-fire!
A word of caution (& decency), though: Patrick
Peterson, Ryan Matthews and Rob Housler will all show up in the
Valley with stars in their eyes - excited to become Cardinals.
Instead of a rousing Arizona welcome, they're likely to run into the
teeth of a buzz-saw. It's not fair (It wasn't their fault
that the team drafted them).
They're ours now. Regardless of how you feel about
the astuteness (or lack thereof) Rod G, Steve K and Coach Wiz, make
these kids feel welcome at a very exciting time in their lives.
Onward! I spent the better part of two hours
re-stacking the Day 3
Board. I'm going to do it differently this year (because,
by the time you get past the 5th round, what your board looks like
has little to do with who gets drafted - because the various teams
are filling position spots and cherry picking obscure names from
even more obscure schools). So what I've done is to stack the next
200 or so names on my Day 3 Board and, as the players are drafted,
I'll color in the background of their cell according to which round
they're drafted. This will enable us all to look backward and see
what actually happened on the board round by round.
The good news is that there are still some
run-stuffing ILB's and a pass rusher or two still on our board.
ILB's Casey Matthews and Colin McCarthy, DE/OLB Sam Acho and OLB's
Scott Lutrus and (sleeper pick) Elijah Joseph are all still around.
Other names to keep an eye on: WR Edmund Gates, CB
Kendric Burney, WR's Greg Salas and Cecil Shorts, O-linemen Clint
Boling and James Brewer and S Buster Skrine.
I'll check in from time to time during and after
today's 4 rounds of the Draft.
10:00 pm Day 2
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 29, 2011 -- Let me lead
off by saying that I am underwhelmed by Rounds 2 or 3 of the
Cardinal draft. I wasn't crazy about either the value or
position-priority aspects of either selection. With pass rushers,
Reed, Bowers or Ayers still on our Board
(as the top 3 rated BPA's), the Cards opted for Va Tech
RB Ryan Williams. In Round 3,
with Ryan Mallett, Casey Matthews, Colin McCarthy and the last
decent pass rusher, Justin Houston still on the Board, the Cards
elected to draft Rob Housler, a
240 lb TE from Florida Atlantic who can run in the mid 4.5's but
isn't yet much of a blocker.
You can argue that the Patrick Peterson was the
best CB in the draft and that "you can never have too many CB's" and
that we need better pass receiving and a down-the-seam threat at TE.
But - with 4 picks to go, it looks as though there are no quality
pass rushers or backup QB's and very few offensive linemen available
for our next 4 picks. Plus - the latest lockout court decision will
impede our efforts to fill these needs via trades or free agency.
In all fairness (& out of respect for Steve Keim,
Rod Graves and Coach Wiz), I want to hear what these guys have to
say before dialing up Dr. Kevorkian.
Final note - I set up my
Board for 137 players and have been marking off those players
already drafted up thru the Cardinal #69 selection. I'll bring it up
to date for the remainder of Round 3 tomorrow morning as we reset
our Board for the final day. I'm shutting things down for now.
Ciao.
7:39 pm Day 2 --Holmdel, NJ
-- April 29, 2011 -- Cards came into Round 2, needing a pass
rusher, O-lineman and a QB but surprised us all by bypassing Bowers,
Reed and Ayers and selecting a RB
Ryan Williams of Virginia Tech.
Although Williams adds home-run elusiveness, we're not sure why we
drafted him, considering a backfield stocked with Wells, Hightower
and LSH. I eagerly await Wiz's comments about why we drafted the
kid. (Not that he was a horrible pick - I ranked him #19 on my Day 2
board). It's just that the top 7 guys on my board (Reed, Bowers,
Ayers, Ijalana, Mallett, Ausin and B B Carter).
It had been anticipated that there would be a run
on QB's at the top of Round 2, but it started out looking like a run
on DB's, with I-Dowling and A Williams being picked 1-2. Then we got
a couple of QB's (Dalton and Kaeperick/not Mallett) followed by
Sheard and then the Cardinals and their pick of Williams. This
leaves us with the same position-needs: Pass Rusher, O-Lineman and
QB. To further complicate things, the StL court overturned the
Nelson Decision and FA and trade activities will be frozen
indefinitely - which means maybe that had we known about the
decision earlier, we would have drafted for need with our #38 pick.
Oh well, onward!
10:00 am Day
Two -- Holmdel, NJ -- April 29, 2011 --
Recapping a Day One of surprises. Initial surprise was that the
first 5 picks of the draft were no surprise - they rattled off
neatly as expected. That's when the surprises started. Cleveland
completed a blockbuster trade with Atlanta for multi picks - some
Cardinal fans criticized the Card FO for not doing that deal at #5.
My guess is that, had Peterson not been there, we might have done
it. Next came the Niners, a slam dunk for stealing Gabbert.
Surprise! They grabbed our Cardinal sleeper pass rusher AldonSmith.
Next up were the Titans -surely they'd pick Gabbert, Uh uh, they
reached for a different QB (Locker). Jerry Jones at #9 then
surprised the world by making the logical pick - OT Tyron Smith. The
Jags then traded up with Houston to grab Gabbert at #10. The Vikes -
also in need of a QB - decided they couldn't wait til Round 2 and
picked off Christian Ponder at #12. Things then settled down until
the Giants at #19 - they were expected to grab an O-lineman or DT
but the name, Prince Amukamara leaped out of their draft board like
a sore thumb. Great value pick. The Browns broke Rex Ryan's heart by
jumping in to grab DT Phil Taylor. Philly skipped Jimmy Smith in
favor of our favorite O-lineman, guard Danny Watkins. Smith went to
the other team reported to target him (the Ravens). The Jets settled
for Wilkerson. That's about it.
The selection of
Peterson by the Cardinals
seems to be a terrific value pick - even as high as #5 because some
experts rated him top on their draft boards and the safest pick
among the elite. He appears to have terrific ball skills and a Deon
Sanders knack for taking punts and kickoffs to the house. His only
possible negative (& one not shared by everybody) is that he could
be a more physical, aggressive tackler. Here's what I like about the
pick - You have to view your secondary as a mixture of pieces to a
complex puzzle & one which is only as good as its weakest link
(because if you have a weakness, good opponents will find it and
exploit it). Even with an improving Greg Toler playing opposite an
inconsistent DRC last year, the Cards were a bit vulnerable in pass
coverage. The addition of Peterson gives us a shutdown tandem of DRC
and Peterson or Toler with the 3rd guy playing nickel. Other than
the Jets, you'd now be hard-pressed to find a better secondary in
the NFL.
Still, the selection of Peterson left me with a
half-empty feeling in our football-stomachs, because - other than
perhaps Schofield - we lack young edge pass rushers and (regardless
of the Hasselbeck and Bulger rumors) I still feel somewhat nervous
about QB. It was with this in mind that I re-set the
Cardinal Day 2 Draft Board.
We pick 6th at #38 this evening. The top 6
prospects on my re-worked draft board are (in order of preference:
OLB/DE Brooks Reed, DE Da'Quan Bowers, OLB Akeem Ayers, OL Ben
Ijalana, QB Ryan Mallett and DT Marvin Austin.
Bowers is tricky because of the injury, but if we
can get 3 years out of him as expected before his arthritic knee
flares out of control, he's worth the risk at #38 whereas he wasn't
worth the risk at the top of the draft. Reed and Ayers may be safer
picks for the Cards if they want a pass rusher here. (Other than,
say, Houston, the pass-rushing cupboard is pretty bare after these
three guys). For different reasons, Mallett was too high a risk at
the top of round one, but has a gun for an arm and has played under
center. (If you don't like Mallett, a different flavor would be
Dalton - possibly the "Joe Montana" of this year's draft). I like
Austin a lot and am concerned that Watkins never came all the way
back from his knee injury. Robinson is expected to retire, so we're
going to be thin at NT depthwise. Ijalana is a quality pick at the
top of round two, but we may want to wait til #69 or later to troll
in deeper interior-lineman waters.
One other possibility - this is the point in the
draft where teams use the daylight hours to rework their boards and
attempt to trade up to grab a specific player or position they're
targeting. This may be a spot where the Cards may decide they can
afford to trade down a few spots for additional picks.
It should be a good second day. The only thing I
don't like about it is that it starts at 6 pm ET - causing family
friction by overlapping the dinner hour
8:50 pm Day One
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 28, 2011 -- First of
all, ESPN is better to watch than NFL Network because they have a
countdown clock.
Now the more substantive stuff. The top of the
draft went 100% according to my most recent mock, and - instead of
trading down (an option I favored so long as we didn't have a shot
at Miller, Dareus or Peterson) the Cards hung tough and drafted
Peterson. Put him opposite DRC (with Toler as our nickel guy) and we
may have a secondary that rivals the Jets.
The "zero surprises" aspect of the first 5 picks
was followed by nothing but surprises - Atlanta trading up to grab
Julio Jones and the Niners passing on Gabbert in order to draft
Aldon Smith followed by Tennessee, who passed on Fairley and preferred Jake Locker over
Gabbert. Whoowee! Dallas is on the clock. WIll they grab Tyron
Smith? Or will they surprise us by drafting a pass rusher or
Amukamara. They stayed with Tyron Smith.
Next come the Skins, Houston and Minnesota.
Gabbert is a sitting duck for Shanahan. Houston should logically
take a corner and the Vikes (if Gabbert is gone) could easily
address the Williams suspension issue by grabbing a DT (but probably
not Fairley & his purported baggage). Instead of grabbing
Gabbert, the Skins traded down with
Jags who then took Gabbert. Houston followed with JJ Watt. Only pass
rushers remaining on Top 38 board include Quinn, Fairley, Brooks
Reed and Ayers. We need one of them badly and I'll be sweating
bullets until we know whether we get one of them.
Vikes said to be trying to trade down but opted to
take Ponder (Man oh Man! The QB-run has surpassed the D-Line run so
far). Detroit at #13 grabbed Fairley (& not Bowers). Imagine a
D-line interior of Suh and Fairley - with KVB outside). Rams grabbed
one of the remaining pass rushers (Quinn). Will Miami at #15 take
one of my sleeper picks (Mallett)? Nope. Looks like they grabbed
Pouncey. Skins, New England's first pick and the Giants are next up.
(It's 9:38 pm ET - I'll probably go to 10:30 pm and then pick things
up again in the morning). Skins selected Kerrigan. I have NE taking
Solder with their first pick. (They picked Solder). SD is an enigma
- most project a pass rushing 3-technique like Jordan. Looks like
they stole Liuget from the Giants (who I'd now expect to grab
Castonzo). Surprise - they took the Prince! Great value pick. Now will TB grab
A Williams (a Tampa-2 type corner)? They nabbed a De (Clayborn. KC
(Castoonzo?), Indy (Dalton?) and Philly (J Smith?) are on the clock.
Surprise! KC traded the pick to Cleveland who
snatched DT Phil Taylor. OK. One more pick (Indy) and we're going to
call it a night. (I'm still saying Dalton). Wrong! It was Castonzo.
I'll be back atcha tomorrow AM.
7:10 pm Day One
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 28, 2011 -- Well, we're
past the dinner-hour and cleaning up a few loose ends.
Verification that Miller is expected to go to Denver caused me to
rip apart 4 or 5 pages to rework my mock draft (When there's a
change as early as #2, it causes a cascade of changes all the way
down the food chain). Other late buzz points to (a) surprising
interest in Dalton in the 1st round (told ya so!) and a plethora of
teams expected to work the phones to trade up for a QB or one of the
two top CB's.
So far as the Cardinals are concerned, I have no
idea what we'll do. Latest buzz has us trading down (I just hope we
don't trade ourselves out of the pool of elite prospects like we did
when we passed up Suggs, Kevin Williams and Trufant for the
opportunity to grab Bryant Johnson (who?) and Calvin Pace). I think
there's a 60% chance we'll trade down (hopefully no later than
Houston at #11).
A name to stay on top of is OLB/DE Aldon Smith. On
a couple of highlight reels, he closed on the QB as quick (if not
quicker) than Miller. He figures to go somewhere between #8 and #11
and mysteriously showed up on Kiper's latest mock, today, as the
Cardinals' choice at #5.
The Cards could also stand pat at #5 and (assuming
Newton or Miller are gone) wind up with Peterson, Fairley, Green or
J Jones. One thing seeming to be less and less likely is the
possibility we'll draft Gabbert. Rumors surfaced in the past few
hours that the Cards may have reached an informal "understanding"
with Marc Bulger - which would give us veteran support ahead of
Skelton and Bartell and take the pressure off our need to draft a
QB. (Note - This isn't to say that we might not still draft a rookie
QB in a later round if the right guy were available at the right
spot.
It's now 7:22 pm (38:00 minutes on the clock). One
thing I was able to get a jump on was a #1 -
#38 Board (in case we trade down in the first round for one or
more picks). This should give you a pretty decent idea of who we
might be most interested in on Day One. We'll repeat the same
exercise for Day 2 tomorrow morning,
3:00 pm Day One
-- Holmdel, NJ -- April 28, 2011 -- There's
been a weather alert all day for the Metro NYC region and my
greatest nightmare would be if an electrical storm wiped out DirecTV
reception or, even worse, resulted in a total power outage. (No
seriously, it's happened before). Fortunately, the sever
thunderstorm warnings are expected to end an hour from now and we
should be OK. (We did get some pixel-choppiness via the satellite
for about a minute or two but it's gone now).
Lots of good "inside baseball" about the draft on
ESPN and NFL Network (where Kurt Warner, Torry Holt and Jim Mora are
holding down the fort). Only breaking news has been that the Lockout
will continue to be overturned, with everything returning to 2010
"normal" with the exception of the one thing we draft fans care most
about - trades and FA transactions where procedures will be
announced tomorrow. (Smart money says the League won't permit
trading and FA activity in the middle of the Draft and a
signing/trading period probably won't start til Monday or later.
This would include UDFA activity.
The other choice tidbit of breaking news comes
from Jay Glazer with the Denver people. He says that Elway. Fox &
Co. had been torn between Dareus or Miller but that they'd probably
opt for Miller because he'd be likely to be on the field for more
defensive downs than Dareus would be. For me this presents a problem
- Do I buy into Glazer's reporting and change my entire mock draft?
Or do I stay put? Dunno. Let me think about it.
11:00 am Day
One --
Holmdel, NJ
-- April 28, 2011 -- Had a bit of early morning scrambling
(driving wife's Mom to doctor's appointment). Got back a half-hour
ago and checked out the local daily papers - most notably, Daily
News (Gary Myers) and NJ Star Ledger (Zachery Bowman). Both are good
bell-cows for the local NY teams because they have good inside lines
of commo.
Myers has the Giants taking Pouncey at #19. (I
have them drafting Luiget). He agrees with my projection of Phil
Taylor going to the Jets. He and I agree with the CW that at least 4
QB's will fall in the 1st round (I predict 5). He's evidently going
with the rumors that Shanahan wants a QB (so he gives the Skins
Locker at #10. He has the Dolphs grabbing Dalton at #15 (I have him
going to the Colts at #22).
Berman has the Giants grabbing a OT (Costanzo) and
the Jets winding up with Wilkerson. He agrees with my prediction
that (barring trades) that Gabbert will fall to SF at #7 (Myers
gives Gabbert to us). He, I and others must have read the same
comment that Bowers would not fall past Detroit at #13 and that the
Jags had zero'd in on Kerrigan. He has Locker going to the local pro
team (Seattle). His only wild-card 1st round projection is LB
Justin Houston to the Falcs.
Three big CW concensus mock picks have Fairleu
going to Tennessee at #8 (despite a recent rash of negative
remarks), OT Tyron Smith going to Washington at #10 and Jimmy
Smith going to Philly at #23.
For reasons too convoluted to explain here, I now
have a TV in my home office (it's nice to have my main PC and TV
both in the same room. ESPN is devoting a lot of AM time to the
Draft. Most if not all their buzz is pretty much a rehash. They do
tease toward checking out their rumors web page and what Adam
Schefter has to say.
Catch you later.
|
