I wanted to talk the draft but its timely to post so much. I also keep reading about the future and a lot of it I disagree with so here are my thoughts, feel free to trash them:
The Draft:
I loved it. At least most of it. I dont have comments on guys like Holden, he will either be good or he wont but outside of that, I like it.
Haason Reddick, LB, Temple: Great pick. Fast, fast guy. Played OLB in college but everyone seems to think will transition fine. He is actually faster than Dwash, that is huge. I see him playing in a sub role to start as I dont see us benching Dansby or Bucannon right away. He can play as a third ILB, as an added rusher and could provide help on special teams. I think he is going to make a much larger impact than previous 1st round picks under Keim. Once we were up, out of our options, I wanted him or Hooker. Totally okay that we took him instead since Hooker does have medical questions. Time will tell on that one.
Budda Baker, S, Washington: This is another great pick. Tweets today stating he spent 2.5 hours yesterday studying our Defense to prepare for camp. Very motivated, very talented kid in the mold of honey badger but slightly bigger (1 inch, 20 lbs). He can cover the slot, blitz, play safety, basically all the things HB does. Having both of them on the field with pp21 is going to be special, plain and simple. He could also contribute to our poor special teams unit.
Chad Williams, WR, Grambling: I dont know about you guys but I LOVE angry wide receivers. If this guy can be anything like Anquan for us, he will be a great pick. We have too many nice guys on our team IMO, an angry player is good to fit into the system. I'm not head over heels for the pick but I like getting a big strong WR to help in this season and moving forward. He can also return punts/kicks.
Dorian Johnson, G, Pittsburgh: Everything I read is that he is NFL ready and has the potential to be a very long term starting guard for us, replacing Iupati over time and for now fighting Boehm for the RG job. (hopefully he wins it and Boehm beats out shipley at C. If they can play, the future is here)
Will Holden, T, Vanderbilt University: not much to say here, OL depth is very important. Keim obviously takes OL building very seriously, I love that. It sounds like he is at best a backup for now and that is totally OK.
T.J. Logan, RB, North Carolina: Fast, scat back type to replace Ellington at RB and provide a spark on ST especially as kick returner. HAd great numbers at NC doing that job.
Johnathan Ford, S, Auburn: potential to play later but for now is a fast, solid gunner for special teams.
I love it. We are grooming replacements, bolstering our terrible ST unit and continuing to manifest a dominant defense and a very bolstered OL. No longer are the days where out starting OL can barely play football and our backups are pizza delivery drivers. If our ST is still bad after all this talent is added in, Amos can no longer be protected. I do think they will improve tremendously though.
As far as the lementing about CB and QB. QB I am not worried about. The only way to get one of the top 3 guys would have been to surrender massive picks and not bolster our team the way we just did. I prefer the method we did after one of the top 3 QBs didnt make it to us. I dont want to do an RG3 trade situation for a QB unless they are a sure fire stud and even ten I would be hesitant. Next years draft class is QB heavy and there are over 10 impending free agent QBs that are better than drew Stanton next year. Some of them just better, some way better so there are options.
For QB, personally, I think we are fine. We have a SOLID safety room and the top CB in the league. With proper scheming the cb2 job will be fine and on top of that, I do believe a healthy Bethel can hold the job down. Otherwise, Harlan Miller is pretty good too. This is a minimal concern for me after other needs have been addressed.
The future:
I dont believe BA is close to retirement and am a bit confused as to why everyone says with fact he wi ll retire soon. Everyone knows he is basically the same age ad Bellichick (sp) and PEte Carroll yet no one talks about them retiring because they are old? I hope BA stays a long time, he is my all time favorite cardinals coach.
I believe our offense is prepared to be a run heavy smash mouth football team with our stellar OL and DJ toting the rock. Even if Palmer retires next year and we get a QB a little better than Stanton, I believe we are still a playoff team. Defense wins championships and our top 10 defense got even better in the draft IMO. This is another reason I am not screaming about a QB. I think we will get a good one but I also think DJ is a game changer and makes any QB better automatically.
It is a QB driven league during the season but lets not forgot the broncos won the super bowl with manning rotten corpse of an arm a few years ago. Cam newton and his panthers got destroyed by an elite defense and they seemed unstoppable.
I love where our team is, it is so much more fun than it was in the 90s and early 2000s. This draft might just mirror the 2004 draft 8 years from now.
Anyway, tear it up guys. Thanks for reading.
The Draft:
I loved it. At least most of it. I dont have comments on guys like Holden, he will either be good or he wont but outside of that, I like it.
Haason Reddick, LB, Temple: Great pick. Fast, fast guy. Played OLB in college but everyone seems to think will transition fine. He is actually faster than Dwash, that is huge. I see him playing in a sub role to start as I dont see us benching Dansby or Bucannon right away. He can play as a third ILB, as an added rusher and could provide help on special teams. I think he is going to make a much larger impact than previous 1st round picks under Keim. Once we were up, out of our options, I wanted him or Hooker. Totally okay that we took him instead since Hooker does have medical questions. Time will tell on that one.
Budda Baker, S, Washington: This is another great pick. Tweets today stating he spent 2.5 hours yesterday studying our Defense to prepare for camp. Very motivated, very talented kid in the mold of honey badger but slightly bigger (1 inch, 20 lbs). He can cover the slot, blitz, play safety, basically all the things HB does. Having both of them on the field with pp21 is going to be special, plain and simple. He could also contribute to our poor special teams unit.
Chad Williams, WR, Grambling: I dont know about you guys but I LOVE angry wide receivers. If this guy can be anything like Anquan for us, he will be a great pick. We have too many nice guys on our team IMO, an angry player is good to fit into the system. I'm not head over heels for the pick but I like getting a big strong WR to help in this season and moving forward. He can also return punts/kicks.
Dorian Johnson, G, Pittsburgh: Everything I read is that he is NFL ready and has the potential to be a very long term starting guard for us, replacing Iupati over time and for now fighting Boehm for the RG job. (hopefully he wins it and Boehm beats out shipley at C. If they can play, the future is here)
Will Holden, T, Vanderbilt University: not much to say here, OL depth is very important. Keim obviously takes OL building very seriously, I love that. It sounds like he is at best a backup for now and that is totally OK.
T.J. Logan, RB, North Carolina: Fast, scat back type to replace Ellington at RB and provide a spark on ST especially as kick returner. HAd great numbers at NC doing that job.
Johnathan Ford, S, Auburn: potential to play later but for now is a fast, solid gunner for special teams.
I love it. We are grooming replacements, bolstering our terrible ST unit and continuing to manifest a dominant defense and a very bolstered OL. No longer are the days where out starting OL can barely play football and our backups are pizza delivery drivers. If our ST is still bad after all this talent is added in, Amos can no longer be protected. I do think they will improve tremendously though.
As far as the lementing about CB and QB. QB I am not worried about. The only way to get one of the top 3 guys would have been to surrender massive picks and not bolster our team the way we just did. I prefer the method we did after one of the top 3 QBs didnt make it to us. I dont want to do an RG3 trade situation for a QB unless they are a sure fire stud and even ten I would be hesitant. Next years draft class is QB heavy and there are over 10 impending free agent QBs that are better than drew Stanton next year. Some of them just better, some way better so there are options.
For QB, personally, I think we are fine. We have a SOLID safety room and the top CB in the league. With proper scheming the cb2 job will be fine and on top of that, I do believe a healthy Bethel can hold the job down. Otherwise, Harlan Miller is pretty good too. This is a minimal concern for me after other needs have been addressed.
The future:
I dont believe BA is close to retirement and am a bit confused as to why everyone says with fact he wi ll retire soon. Everyone knows he is basically the same age ad Bellichick (sp) and PEte Carroll yet no one talks about them retiring because they are old? I hope BA stays a long time, he is my all time favorite cardinals coach.
I believe our offense is prepared to be a run heavy smash mouth football team with our stellar OL and DJ toting the rock. Even if Palmer retires next year and we get a QB a little better than Stanton, I believe we are still a playoff team. Defense wins championships and our top 10 defense got even better in the draft IMO. This is another reason I am not screaming about a QB. I think we will get a good one but I also think DJ is a game changer and makes any QB better automatically.
It is a QB driven league during the season but lets not forgot the broncos won the super bowl with manning rotten corpse of an arm a few years ago. Cam newton and his panthers got destroyed by an elite defense and they seemed unstoppable.
I love where our team is, it is so much more fun than it was in the 90s and early 2000s. This draft might just mirror the 2004 draft 8 years from now.
Anyway, tear it up guys. Thanks for reading.
