Rotoworld - Cards draft a 'D'

[SeattleCard]

- I think we had the lowest draft grade of any team..

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/53887/174/draft-2015-nfc-draft-grades

Arizona Cardinals

24. Florida OT D.J. Humphries
58. Missouri OLB Markus Golden
86. Northern Iowa RB David Johnson
116. Delaware State DE Rodney Gunter
158. West Virginia DE/OLB Shaq Riddick
159. UAB KR/WR J.J. Nelson
256. Louisville TE Gerald Christian

Overview: GM Steve Keim has done an outstanding job of turning the Cardinals into an annually competitive team, and coach Bruce Arians has shown a propensity for maximizing his roster. Cardinals brass deserves a lot of respect. I did not like their 2015 draft. Perhaps the biggest head scratcher was a day-three trade that cost Arizona pick Nos. 123, 198, and 241 in exchange for No. 116, where Keim selected small-school project Gunter. Humphries is an excellent prospect with a questionable fit at right tackle in Arizona. Golden produced in college, but lacks the athletic ability required to become an impact NFL pass rusher. Johnson is the opposite, offering elite measurables but sub-baseline running ability. He projects best to H-back in the pros. Nelson is a kick returner only. Riddick and Christian were the only Cardinals draft picks I liked. Arizona failed to fill its needs at running back, nose tackle, and cornerback.

Grade: D

 

[Harry]

Hard to argue with the trade criticism, but this is a very harsh appraisal. I think too many of these evaluations focus on immediate impact. I think the value of this draft will lie in how well this group can be developed. This is the most athletic group selected in this draft, but they are raw. This could turn out to provide some fine players. The trick is if it takes 3 years, how many can a team afford to keep?

 

[Dr. Jones]

Mel Kiper

Arizona Cardinals: C+

Top needs: OLB, RB, C, CB

The Cardinals were a team many of us saw taking Melvin Gordon if the Wisconsin RB were available at No. 24, in part because the roster really doesn't have any gaping holes in spots you typically target with premium picks. Turns out, it was never even close with Gordon. D.J. Humphries was a bit of a reach on my board, but I can understand the pick as they look for competition at right tackle. General manager Steve Keim has made improving the O-line a priority from Day 1, and he wants to continue improving there. They needed to add a pass-rusher, and they got Markus Golden in Round 2, then Shaq Riddick in Round 5. I don't see quite the same ability in Golden, but the need there was certainly addressed. David Johnson has a chance to help them right away at running back. He has good size and also offers good hands. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he breaks out in one of the next two seasons. J.J. Nelson is a miniature burner and could be someone to watch in the return game -- he'll run under 4.3, which he needs to since he's under 160 pounds. It was going to be hard to add a player who was sure to be an immediate starter, which is a credit to the state of the roster, but I didn't like the value too much with either of the top two picks.

 

[HeavyB3]

Draft grades are as worthless as mock drafts. You can't grade them until you see them play in the NFL for a couple of seasons. I remember when the Seahawks were getting D's and F's for their 2012 draft that included Bruce Irving, Bobby Wagner, Russel Wilson and JR Sweezy. Worked out pretty well for them.

 

[Chopper0080]

That grade is pretty accurate if you are grading drafts this early. Low draft for need, and a lot of project players. Who knows what it will look like in the end? That is on the coaches.

 

[Azlen]

Here's the NFL.com grades I posted earlier. Wildly different opinions. Prisco also called the Cardinals one of his winners.

Day 1 grade: A+
Day 2 grade: A-
Day 3 grade: A-
Overall grade: A
The skinny: NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah is one of many who believe Humphries is the best offensive tackle in the draft. At pick No. 24, he's an absolute steal for the Cardinals, especially considering they didn't have to trade up to get him. Humphries will fill an area of need and help the recovering Carson Palmer breathe a bit easier by keeping pass rushers at bay. Golden has great upside and might wind up having a better career than his former teammates at Missouri, such Broncos' first-round pick Shane Ray. Johnson is a perfect fit for Bruce Arians and can fill the big-back role while also being a top-notch threat as a pass catcher. Nelson teams with John Brown to form the fastest tandem in the league. Bottom line: The Cardinals added a lot of high upside players who can contribute in defined roles for a team that is really close to a Super Bowl run.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Here's the NFL.com grades I posted earlier. Wildly different opinions. Prisco also called the Cardinals one of his winners.

Day 1 grade: A+
Day 2 grade: A-
Day 3 grade: A-
Overall grade: A
The skinny: NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah is one of many who believe Humphries is the best offensive tackle in the draft. At pick No. 24, he's an absolute steal for the Cardinals, especially considering they didn't have to trade up to get him. Humphries will fill an area of need and help the recovering Carson Palmer breathe a bit easier by keeping pass rushers at bay. Golden has great upside and might wind up having a better career than his former teammates at Missouri, such Broncos' first-round pick Shane Ray. Johnson is a perfect fit for Bruce Arians and can fill the big-back role while also being a top-notch threat as a pass catcher. Nelson teams with John Brown to form the fastest tandem in the league. Bottom line: The Cardinals added a lot of high upside players who can contribute in defined roles for a team that is really close to a Super Bowl run.

For every C or lower grade you can find a B or better grade. Just shows how useless these grades are until the players have a couple seasons under their belt.

 

[juza76]

ok other teams have had sexier picks,like houston,miami and many other, but lets see the response on the fields
but if it doesnt work out maybe keim has to change his philosophy

 

[Bert]

Rotoworld = Some dude in his moms basement. Not a credible source, clearly has bias. Just some dudes opinion who thinks hes a draft expert cuz he watched a couple youtube videos.

 

[SissyBoyFloyd]

I agree with him in the sense that every one of our picks can be legitimately nitpicked in some way. Whenever your team picks someone you don't expect and/or isn't the guy you were hoping for, your first reaction is to inquire from a negative perspective, "What, Who, Why?" What we as fans never have in our arsenal to judge by is our coaches view of the team, how he wants to develop it, and how he sees using those special players he wanted above all others. We just aren't privy to that information, thus our judgments, even though somewhat valid regarding the player/pick, are still very limited as far as our whole team is concerned.

 

[Joe Mama]

Has any person/service ever gone back and graded the draft grades say 3-5 years later?

 

[Azlen]

Has any person/service ever gone back and graded the draft grades say 3-5 years later?

I know Kiper has done it quite often and Prisco recently wrote a mea culpa on his trashing of the Seahawks draft that netted them Russel Wilson.

 

[GatorAZ]

Ripping a draft just as useless as praising it. Lets revisit this down the road.

 

[THESMEL]

bs Defending drafting players nobody else would draft seems to be Keims arrogance, Well nobody saw what keim seen is getting old, Like Injury to QB the game after a top contract is signed, like Palmer and others- 1926 curse.

Passing on Hill and Hyde for John Brown was stupid -




bs

 

[cardpa]

ok other teams have had sexier picks,like houston,miami and many other, but lets see the response on the fields
but if it doesnt work out maybe keim has to change his philosophy

Yes these teams had sexier picks and why did they have sexier picks, because their regular season records were not very good so they were picking high in the draft. What you can't really have is both. If you want to have sexy picks then you better expect your team to pretty much suck in the regular season. If you want a playoff contenders record then don't expect to get sexy picks. The trade up argument is senseless because unless you find a team willing to trade in the particular position in the draft that you need to get to in order to get the pick you want it becomes a senseless argument.

Those teams that are continuously talked about for playoff spots are those teams that can mine the raw gold that exists out there and turn them into a finely polished player. How many times have you seen a team like the Patriots trade out of the first round completely? They consistently find FAs to fill spots and then draft for the long term. Not all that different than the Cardinals are doing now. You are not going to get the Fowlers and the Gurleys when you are drafting in the mid to late 20s or later. Those players are for teams that had quite frankly a crappy season.

I rather follow a team the in always in the hunt rather than a team like the Browns who can't put together a 500 season and then screw up the draft despite the availability of quality players. 21-11 over the first two seasons is not too shabby.

 

[SeattleCard]

http://www.120sports.com/video/v121962222/cardinals-draft-grade-d

 

[BurqueCardFan]

bs Defending drafting players nobody else would draft seems to be Keims arrogance, Well nobody saw what keim seen is getting old, Like Injury to QB the game after a top contract is signed, like Palmer and others- 1926 curse.

Passing on Hill and Hyde for John Brown was stupid -




bs

Passing on Hill and Hyde was bad because we drafted Niklas in round 2, who has not proven anything yet. John Brown was a very good pick looking back. It's always tough looking back in these situations.

 

[DoTheDew]

Let's see how this draft looks in 2 years. I seem to remember everyone loving the 2006 draft where we got Leinart. I don't think any of those players are still in the league. I remember everyone being thrilled with the "can't miss" pick in Cooper. Yeah okay.

I have a good feeling about the players in this draft. There's no red flags as far as being out of the league quickly from an injury or character standpoint for any of our picks except maybe the KR. This draft might not produce any hall of famers, but I feel like we're going to get some production out of most of our picks.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

It makes sense a site based on fantasy sports would not like our draft.

 

[gmabel830]

bs Defending drafting players nobody else would draft seems to be Keims arrogance, Well nobody saw what keim seen is getting old, Like Injury to QB the game after a top contract is signed, like Palmer and others- 1926 curse.

Passing on Hill and Hyde for John Brown was stupid -




bs

Who did we draft that nobody else would want? We might have reached for a few guys above where they were expected to be drafted, but outside of the very last pick I would guess all of our other guys would have been picked. Gunter was the biggest perceived risk, and the Niners GM admitted they were planning to take him. I saw what Keim saw in Palmer before he got injured -- which apparently you are Jesus if you could see that one coming in advance?

 

[cardncubfan]

bs Defending drafting players nobody else would draft seems to be Keims arrogance, Well nobody saw what keim seen is getting old, Like Injury to QB the game after a top contract is signed, like Palmer and others- 1926 curse.

Passing on Hill and Hyde for John Brown was stupid -




bs

Not really. We'll see a few years down the road. John Brown had more than twice as many yards as Hyde so I don't see how it was stupid to pass on him.

 

[Broseph]

CBS.com and NFL.com absolutely loved our draft and gave us an "A".

 

[Redneck Voodoo]

http://www.120sports.com/video/v121962222/cardinals-draft-grade-d

I felt like I was watching the Home and Gardens channel grading our draft.

 

[Redneck Voodoo]

Who did we draft that nobody else would want? We might have reached for a few guys above where they were expected to be drafted, but outside of the very last pick I would guess all of our other guys would have been picked. Gunter was the biggest perceived risk, and the Niners GM admitted they were planning to take him. I saw what Keim saw in Palmer before he got injured -- which apparently you are Jesus if you could see that one coming in advance?

WWJD: Who Would Jesus Draft?

 

[Jetstream Green]

Mel Kiper

Mel Kiper... butt hurt because he has no real scouting information and must ignore Gunter because he really did not know who he was