NFL Alternate Universe Draft for Cardinals - 2010-2021

[SissyBoyFloyd]

What could have been in this Universe in retrospect, from players who were actually available to us, with (our actual pick) in parenthesis.

2010 - R1.27 - Devin McCourty, CB (Dan Williams, DT)
2011 - R1.5 - Julio Jones, WR (Patrick Peterson, CB)
2012 - R1.13 - Michael Brockers, DT (Michael Floyd, WR)
2013 - R1.7 - DeAndre Hopkins, WR (J Cooper, OG)
2014 - R1.24 - Laken Tomlinson, OG (D J Humphries, OT)
2015 - R1.29 - Vernon Butler, DT (Robert Nkemdiche, DT)
2017 - R1.13 - T J Watt, LB (Haason Reddick, LB)
2018 - R1.10 - Kolton Miller, OT (Josh Rosen, QB)
2019 - R1.1 - Kyler Murray, QB
2020 - R1.8 - Isaiah Simmons, LB
2021 - R1.16 - Najee Harris, RB (Zavin Collins, LB),
2021 - R2.17 -J Owusu-Koramoah, LB (R Moore, WR)

If you were drafting, who would you have taken instead each year in retrospect? Could you have done better?

 

[unseenaz]

if I knew the lottery numbers in advance I would be a billionaire! and a great GM

 

[Russ Smith]

You have to go back further and I did post it here at the time although admittedly I tend to post about cal and Stanford players EVERY Year.

But 2005 draft we should have taken Aaron Rodgers not Antron Rolle.

If you want to go full hindsight we could have taken Frank Gore not JJ Arrington in round 2 but we probably would have taken a CB if we didn't take Antron in the first round.

Now to be fair, we did get Kurt Warner that year and the next year we drafted Leinart which at the time I was 100% on board with.

But if we had drafted Rodgers, he could have spent 1 year behind Kurt and then taken over and we might have been to more than the 1 SB.

It also possibly saves Denny Green's job

Of course there are 23 NFL teams who can say the same team they passed on Rodgers

 

[SissyBoyFloyd]

But 2005 draft we should have taken Aaron Rodgers not Antron Rolle.

If you want to go full hindsight we could have taken Frank Gore not JJ Arrington in round 2 but we probably would have taken a CB if we didn't take Antron in the first round.

Now to be fair, we did get Kurt Warner that year and the next year we drafted Leinart which at the time I was 100% on board with.

I don't remember the whole situation that long ago. But did we sign Warner thinking he was a long term solution at QB considering his experience in NY? If we questioned that scenario, why weren't we looking for a young QB in that draft? And so, why would we pass on Rogers, who I sort of remember being rated at the top of draft boards.

Whatever the answers to these questions, the reason I posted the thread was simply to show how easily Cardinal history could have been so easily different. Rogers alone would have had such a change in, not only the Cards history, but everyone one of us as fans. Who knows how much more positive of a psyche or nature many of us might have had. This thread in particular might have never been created.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't remember the whole situation that long ago. But did we sign Warner thinking he was a long term solution at QB considering his experience in NY? If we questioned that scenario, why weren't we looking for a young QB in that draft? And so, why would we pass on Rogers, who I sort of remember being rated at the top of draft boards.

Whatever the answers to these questions, the reason I posted the thread was simply to show how easily Cardinal history could have been so easily different. Rogers alone would have had such a change in, not only the Cards history, but everyone one of us as fans. Who knows how much more positive of a psyche or nature many of us might have had. This thread in particular might have never been created.

We signed Kurt because we needed a backup, the starter was supposed to be Josh McCown but Denny went with Kurt who was 2-8 as the starter, Josh 3-3. It was part of what got Denny fired, but to be fair it was also part of what got us to the SB a few years later it was the beginning of the Kurt Warner reclamation project. The next year Leinart was the starter but Warner had nice moments off the bench. Next year Kurt the starter Leinart hurt, and for the 3rd straight year the other QB had a better w/l % than Warner. And then 2008 happened and Kurt took us all the way to the SB before we lost. It was a remarkable comeback and again if we pick Rodgers that year it almost certainly never happens, Rodgers would been the entrenched starter during the time Kurt was putting his career back together in what actually happened.

Denny loved McCown he was a great athlete and he thought would be a great QB, in the end he had a very long career with some bright spots but was always a better athlete than player, the opposite of Kurt, who when right was just brilliant.

But like the other 23 teams who passed, if we'd taken Rodgers the time from 05 to now would have been MUCH different. He's 129-67-1 as a starter in the NFL and that's with many years with a crappy coach, an OL that was pieced together with no name guys etc.

The thing you have to remember is in 2005 we had both Larry and Anquan, and they were young. As great as they were with Warner just imagine their careers with Rodgers, assuming we keep Anquan in that world which may not have been possible due to money.

 

[SissyBoyFloyd]

Yes, that would have been a great alternate reality for all of us, Russ.