Off-Season Grades: Arizona Cardinals
September 1, 2007 by Walter Mitchell
This past off-season was perhaps the Cardinals’ most critical since they moved to Arizona. The new stadium was filled to capacity last season as the Cardinals fumbled and bumbled their way to a dismal 5-11 season under the woeful leadership of Dennis Green. In the midst of a string of pitiful losses, then VP of Football Operations, Rod Graves, attempted to assuage the fans’ frustrations by avowing that the Cardinals were just a few players away from being a playoff contender. Changes and additions would be made. Cap space was more than ample. There would be a new head coach. New enthusiasm. New hope. But, in the final analysis, with the opportunities Rod Graves was given this off-season to put a playoff contender on the field, has he failed miserably once again?
If anyone was given the job of trying to turn the Cardinals’ fortunes around, here is a list of changes that should have been considered…along with a recap and assessment of what changes were actually made.
1. The need for a new head coach. Action taken. Green was ousted and Steelers’ OC Ken Whisenhunt was hired. Good move? Yes. Emphatically yes. Whisenhunt brings an offensive expertise to the job that no Cardinal head coach has brought since Don Coryell in the 1970s. Grade: A.
2. The need for a more talented and dedicated coaching staff. Action taken. It was a boon for the Cardinals that Russ Grimm was hired as Assitstant Head Coach/Offensive line Coach. The other coaching hires were excellent, save one (#3). Grade: A.
3. The need for a new defensive coordinator. Action deferred. Graves pushed for Pendergast to remain the defensive coordinator, and it certainly helped Whisenhunt’s chances to secure the Cardinals’ head coaching job by being amenable to keeping Pendergast on. Pendergast’s defenses have been aggressive from a blitzing standpoint to slow both the run and passing games, but egregiously porous in pass defense. Coverage schemes under Pendergast have been alarmingly passive. A change was needed. To make matters worse, Pendergast, a 4-3 base defense proponent, was asked by Whisenhunt to change the base defense to a 3-4, a la the Steelers’. Wouldn’t it therefore have behooved the Cardinals to hire a 3-4 guy? Retaining Pendergast makes almost no sense whatsoever. Grade: F.
4. The need to improve the offensive line. Action taken. Graves may have overspent to bring in three new starters in C Al Johnson, LT Mike Gandy and RT Levi Brown. But, he did improve the line in doing so, and that has been clear this pre-season. However, and this is a big however, Graves strangely elected to allocate $7M of the available cap space on Al Johnson alone, thus prohibiting the team’s ability to adress other key personnel needs. It’s already clear that this strategic plan has backfired. Grade: C+.
5. The need to acquire a blocking TE. Graves was in hot pursuit of Reggie Kelly in free agency, but Kelly elected to re-sign for less money with the Bengals. There could have been a Plan B, but strangely there wasn’t. No blocking TE has been added to the Cardinals’ roster via free agency, the draft or a trade. To make matters worse, the Cardinals now have four TEs on the 53 man roster and none of them are even average blockers. Grade: F.
6. The need to get stronger in the middle of the defensive line. Graves made a bold move by surrendering a 4th round draft pick to the Raiders to move up to #33 in the draft to draft NT Alan Branch. While Branch hasn’t been as productive and/or stout as one would hope this pre-season, his potential is promising. Meanwhile, a DT the Cardinals could have had in the third round, Tank Tyler, is making a huge splash in Kansas City. The question is, now that the Cardinals have a roster full of holes, was surrendering the 4th round draft pick a good move? Right now it appears to be a mistake. Grade: C-.
7. The need to acquire a starting LB to take the place of Orlando Huff. No free agent linebackers were signed. The diminutive Buster Davis of FSU was selected in the third round, and his performance in camp was so poor that Davis finds himself on the waiver wire this morning. In addition, one has to wonder whether Graves knew he was drafting for a 3-4 defense, because there had to be questions about where Davis would fit in to the 3-4. Grade: F.
8. The need to address the Cardinals’ pass rushing deficiencies. For a couple of years now it has been plainly evident that the Cardinals have not been able to generate a respectable 4 man rush. This has caused Clancy Pendergast to blitz more than a coordinator would normally do, in order to provide at least a modicum of pressure on the QB. The best pass rusher, Bertrand Berry has spent more time on the sidelines with injuries the past two years, than time on the field. Chike Okeafor has been solid and really picked up the slack last year when Berry was out. But, no other defensive lineman, save an occasional pressure or sack from Chris Cooper last year, has shown an ability to rush the passer. This off-season not one pass rusher was added to Cardinals’ roster. And now that Chike Okeafor is out, the Cardinals’ pass rush looks glaringly weak. Grade: F.
9. The need to address the Cardinals’ porous pass defense. Anyone watching the Cardinal CBs the past two season would conclude that Antrel Rolle struggled mightily to even hold his own at LCB and Eric Green was erratic at best. Graves did add a key free agent in CB Roderick Hood, which is a very good thing because Rolle is now out at LCB and Hood is in. But, just adding Hood wasn’t enough. Graves didn’t draft a CB and now there’s no viable CB on the roster who is quick and savvy enough to play nickel back…anyone who thinks Antrel Rolle can play well there is fooling him/herself. Grade: C.
10. The need to add a bona fide starting free safety. The past two years the Cardinals have started veteran SS Robert Griffith at FS. While Griff was a hard hitting run supporter, his range in coverage was minimal and larely ineffective. Graves did address this need by re-signing Aaron Francisco and by signing free agent Terrence Holt. The problem is neither one of these candidates thus far has shown the playmaking ability to defend the deep middle or sidelines. Grade: C-.
11. The need to improve the Cardinals’ dismal special teams. The one free agent who was supposed to be an upgrade on the punt and kickoff coverage, Sean Morey, has not had a good camp. Former Pro Bowler Hanik Milligan was re-signed but released over a week ago. Hard to figure that move, considering Milligan’s track record. When looking at the options the Cardinals have on the roster, it makes one wonder how well the Cardinals can cover once again. The good news is that Neil Rackers has been booming touchbacks nearly every kickoff and newly added punter Matt Barr appears to have the ability to angle his punts to the sideline and out of bounds. The other good news is that the Cardinals made a very good 5th round slection in punt and kickoff return man Steve Breaston. Grade: C-.
When looking at the current Cardinal roster and the continued poor play of the defense throughout pre-season, on paper, this Cardinal team does not appear to be anywhere near a playoff contender.
The real hope the Cardinals have is to outscore their opponents in high scoring games. Coach Whisenhunt’s offense looks explosive and capable, as long as Matt Leinart can provide the proper distribution of the football, while displaying solid footwork and passing mechanics.
Perhaps it would be best for Pendergast to abandon the “bend but don’t break” philosophy in favor of rolling the dice on an unrelenting array of full house pressures in the hopes of creating big turnovers. A couple of turnovers a game could mean the difference between winning and losing, provided the offense and special teams do their jobs. Rolling the dice on defense will at times result in big plays for the opposing offense, but, at least the Cardinal offense won’t be sitting for long stretches on the sidelines. In the pre-season the Cardinal offense was sitting for far too many long stretches as the opponent’s offense coverted seemingly every third down bewteen the 20’s. Should that trend continue into the season, five or six wins might well be the ceiling, and another pep talk from the once VP now new GM about the Cards being a couple of players away will remain the redundant refrain.
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Good balanced piece.
Nice writeup.
The biggest mistake in the offseason was not bringing in a significant cornerback or drafting one at all. Just behind that, linebackers.
We had four enormous problems on the team: OL, Coaching, Corners, LBs.
We addressed OL and Coaching and both seem to be much improved. Grade A, Well done.
LBs and Corners were hardly addressed at all. We signed a journeyman corner with starter-level guys like Clements going to division rivals (even if they overpaid) and we drafted a LB who couldn’t get the NFL game and though has a world of potential was rightfully cut from the team. In the meantime, we structured contracts and bonuses of current players and FAs in such a manner as to stock away significant cap money for the future. I don’t know if they didn’t like this FA class at all, and expect it to be better next year, but I don’t like the move. We’d have been so much better off, IMO, overpaying for Clements and having Hood be our nickel back, or throwing a boatload of money at Adalius Thomas or Cato June. And heck, we didn’t even TRY to bring in some of the more average LBs in FA. Grade F…in fact if there were lower grades they’d get it.
I have to agree with a whole lot of this Mitch. When you look at how much cap space we started the offseason with, and the needs we had, I rank this offseason as the most disappointing since the one that followed the playoff season in 98. The baffling decisions to accelerate incentives to players on the roster (like Rolle) and roster bonuses for the free agents, basically guaranteed we would count on a lot of unproven players, or players who have underperformed in the past, for depth. So much more could’ve been done!
I’ve come to the conclusion that the Cards pretty much wrote off this season, in terms of adding to the roster, giving Whisenhunt the opportunity to REALL get what he wants next year after finding out exactly what he has. Actually, I’m just hoping there was some kind of reasoning behind our cap management, I’m not sure what they were thinking.
Walter - The fact that you’re posting almost at daily rate these days suggests a higher-than-usual feeling of agitation about the Cardinals on your part.
While I’m not feeling exactly smug over what we’ve done so far and how far we have to come compared to where we need to go, I’d just as soon defer judgment until we see how the various moves (and non-moves) you refer to actually pan out in the real world during the regular season.
In other words, all we have to go on right now are the moves - not the impact of those moves.
I think you guys are selling Rod Hood a little short. He’s a good player, he just had the misfortune of being on a team with two Pro Bowl-caliber corners and was never going to get a starting spot in Philly. He’s only 25, entering the prime of his career and has played well when he’s been forced into the starting spot due to injury. He should play well in Arizona, and could be a long-term answer at cornerback for the Cards.
Walter, a good part of our problems on defense, IMO, are the fault of KW. I see no reason for us to switch to a 3-4, particularly (as you point out) since it’s being coached by a DC, who is a 4-3 guy. And also, because we don’t seem to have the personnel suited to play the 3-4, especially once Chike went down. Is it too late to switch?
Everything that is right/wrong with the Cards is covered pretty well in this article. How much affect will Barr’s signing affect Rackers with a new holder? I think it will hurt Neils accuracy. Hodel, Player and Rackers have been together for quite some time. As far as Graves goes, I am still wondering why we resigned this guy? Nice man, who lacks the knowledge to build a championship team. The blown capspace still blows my mind.
Just another bash Rod Graves re-hash.
Walter, you used to do better.
In this article, you criticize Pendergast for his constant blitzing, then a few paragraphs later, suggest Pendergast abandon his bend-but-don’t-break passive schemes and start all-out blitzing to create a few turnovers. Huh?
As Jeff has suggested, a little patience to see if the moves made translate into success or failure might be warranted.
Jim: I was lauding CP for his blitz scheme ability, not criticizing him for it, which is why I suggested that he roll the dice as often as possible and abandon this “bend but not break” defensive philosophy which allows the opponents long time consuming drives.
My patience does wear thin when the same stupid mistakes (like having no semblance whatsoever of contain, getting totally suckered on misdirection and leaving receivers wide open down the middle on third and long) are made over and over…these aren’t new mistakes. What have we seen this off-season to suggest the mistakes have been addressed and corrected? These are the very reasons why CP should not have been re-hired.
I hate sitting on the fence. Jeff makes a good point as we have to play the hand we dealt ourselves, however Mitch makes very valid points. The personnel is NOT 3/4 personnel. It is sickening to watch misdirection plays bear us so often and with weak CB play the middle is always wide open. Now in game one we face Vernon Davis who will live over the middle. I played the game over and over in my head and all I see is Smith rolling right and finding Davis down the middle.
I am a tried and true glass half full fan, but when I start sobering up it saddens me to see the defensive shortcomings. We have a great offense, excellent coaches on both sides of the ball, but the weakness behind the average front makes us very vulnerable.
Tank Tyler over Alan Branch ?
You have to be kidding. Tank Tyler may be more polished comming out of school but Branch will be dominate sooner rather than later.
You have identified 11 different things that needed to be done to improve the team, and they all required a certain amount of money to do them. There was not enough money to do them all as well as you would have liked, and we would have liked to do them. yes, we would all have liked to get the best CB on the market, the best OLine personnel on the market etc etc, but the cap is set, and unfortunately we would have needed a cap $50 Mil higher to get the best in every position. In retrospect the $7 mil for Johnson is money well spent, did you see how much Dallas paid Big, and he is proving to be no better there than here. At least Johnson is producing. your comments on Branch will come back to haunt you, he is going to dominate offensive lines for years to come and will always be double teamed.
No, we did not fix everything in one go. but we fixed a lot of things and made giant steps in the right direction, enough so that come next year your list is not going to be 11 holes, but jsut 2 or 3, and that my friend is progress.
EuroCard, I really agree with you on your comments. The top corner available this off-season is now the highest paid DB in NFL history. O-Line is strides better this year then last. Alan Branch is going to make teams sorry they didn’t take him in the first round. We all are quick to judge in the pre-season, but week 1 is still next week.
nice write up. The Cardinals offensive line looks decent. We definitely could have used some secondary help, outside LB, and I think we need a RB. I am not a big Edgerin James fan. Unfortunately, I will root for him, but he is not an explosive back; just average. I can’t stand the ranters that say he is a HOF back.