Player you expect to surprise this season?

Totally_Red

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Matt Prater will absolutely help the Cardinals win a game or two this season with clutch kicking.

More a hope than an expectation, but one guy that would be huge plus with a solid season is Robert Alford. He is at a turning point in his career. Given the Cardinals lack of depth and relative inexperience at the position, if Alford produces anything at all, it will be a plus.

On offense, I am picking Chase Edmonds. Hopefully he can hold up because I expect him to get the majority of the snaps at running back. He has shown some flashes and this is his contract year.
 

BritCard

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Matt Prater will absolutely help the Cardinals win a game or two this season with clutch kicking.

More a hope than an expectation, but one guy that would be huge plus with a solid season is Robert Alford. He is at a turning point in his career. Given the Cardinals lack of depth and relative inexperience at the position, if Alford produces anything at all, it will be a plus.

On offense, I am picking Chase Edmonds. Hopefully he can hold up because I expect him to get the majority of the snaps at running back. He has shown some flashes and this is his contract year.

Its odd how people go on about JJ Watts down year or AJ Greens down year but I haven't seen anyone mention Prater only made 75% of FGs and was only 2% higher than Gonzalez. And Gonzalez had a better record over 40 yards and over 50 yards.
 

Cardsfaninlouky

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Jalen Thompson, if he has a healthy year I think we'll go from glimpses of what he can be to being a very good NFL Safety
It won't surprise me in the least if JT plays well this season. He started showing how talented he is in the last 5 games of 2019. He just needs to stay healthy because we didn't get that in 2020.
 

oaken1

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Byron Murphy

dude knows we are weak in the secondary.... this is his third season.... the nfl is trending towards extending guys after their third season... so it’s kinda a contract year and someone in his room needs to step up now that pp21 is gone

I think we’re gonna see the kid try and make a positive difference.... might flop at it.... but I think he’s gonna try.... and IMO he has just enough talent to make the leap to “ well above average “

not “ great “ mind you

he has more time in a Cardinals uniform than any other cb we have.... he is the Wiley old vet now
 

Stout

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Byron Murphy

dude knows we are weak in the secondary.... this is his third season.... the nfl is trending towards extending guys after their third season... so it’s kinda a contract year and someone in his room needs to step up now that pp21 is gone

I think we’re gonna see the kid try and make a positive difference.... might flop at it.... but I think he’s gonna try.... and IMO he has just enough talent to make the leap to “ well above average “

not “ great “ mind you

he has more time in a Cardinals uniform than any other cb we have.... he is the Wiley old vet now

I hope he does surprise us, because that would make our defense really, really good IMO (barring injuries). Of note, though, is that I think only our CBs are a weak spot; our safeties are pretty good. Only HALF our secondary is week :D
 

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It's possible that they move Murphy outside and use Marco Wilson, who played slot at Florida to that role, or use James Wiggins as an extra FS depending on the defensive package.
 

Russ Smith

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It's possible that they move Murphy outside and use Marco Wilson, who played slot at Florida to that role, or use James Wiggins as an extra FS depending on the defensive package.


From what I'm reading I wouldn't be surprised if Tay Gowan is actually ahead of Wilson. Scouts had him ranked late 2nd early 3rd round before he elected to sit out the year. Then he got Covid, members of his family got it, he considered coming back and couldn't. All that contributed to his fall in the draft. If he's fully recovered he could be the kid projected early 2nd day of the draft and actually ahead of Wilson at the time
 

BullheadCardFan

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From what I'm reading I wouldn't be surprised if Tay Gowan is actually ahead of Wilson. Scouts had him ranked late 2nd early 3rd round before he elected to sit out the year. Then he got Covid, members of his family got it, he considered coming back and couldn't. All that contributed to his fall in the draft. If he's fully recovered he could be the kid projected early 2nd day of the draft and actually ahead of Wilson at the time
Thanks for the input

I'm excited to see the young secondary draft picks and what they can do
 

Russ Smith

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Thanks for the input

I'm excited to see the young secondary draft picks and what they can do


I have no idea but living where I do I always think back to that amazing 49er draft under Bill Walsh when they got Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson in the same draft, 3 rookie starters, Lott was a HOFer, Wright was a pro bowler and Williamson even made a pro bowl I think at some point in his career.

We obviously don't have a Lott in this class but I'm hoping one of the CB's maybe is a steal like Wright and the other and S are maybe like Williamson. But that was a pretty rare draft
 

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I'm going to kind of punt on this question and say JJ Watt.

I think he's going to have a huge impact on the front seven. And if you read between the lines, the Cardinals felt they lacked leadership among the players and Watt has always been a guy who holds his teammates accountable.

I also think Conner is going to be better than Drake. As I posted in the Edmonds thread, Conner had a net -15 yards before contact last year, while Drake was at around 530. And Conner still averaged more per carry than Drake. This means Conner will be able to get tough yards, something the Cardinals running game lacked last year.
 

juza76

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From what I'm reading I wouldn't be surprised if Tay Gowan is actually ahead of Wilson. Scouts had him ranked late 2nd early 3rd round before he elected to sit out the year. Then he got Covid, members of his family got it, he considered coming back and couldn't. All that contributed to his fall in the draft. If he's fully recovered he could be the kid projected early 2nd day of the draft and actually ahead of Wilson at the time

So just after 3 days of minicamp, Gowan a 2021 sixth round pick surpassed a guy drafted 2 rounds earlier, and for whom they have invested a future 4th round pick in addition
 

Russ Smith

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So just after 3 days of minicamp, Gowan a 2021 sixth round pick surpassed a guy drafted 2 rounds earlier, and for whom they have invested a future 4th round pick in addition


No idea just saying pre Covid, he was rated as a better prospect than Wilson by many people. But he chose to sit out, then got Covid, then had to take care of his family who had Covid so he couldn't come back to play and all that contributed to him falling in the draft.

there was a nice story about it just last week.
 

Cardiac

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I went through the entire thread and several of us were right which means several players are making a difference which helps explain the 4 and 0 record so far.
 

Krangodnzr

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on target
I thought you were spot on. It seemed a high likelihood to me that AJ Green was going to exceed expectations. Expectations that were based on poor analysis or no analysis. People just looked at his raw numbers from last year and said he sucked.

Well the film didn't back up that view. Joe Burrow struggled to throw to Green. Many young QBs only want to throw passes to wide open guys and Green is more of a beat you to the ball kind of guy, not a guy who gets wide open.
 

Red Bird

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Byron Murphy

dude knows we are weak in the secondary.... this is his third season.... the nfl is trending towards extending guys after their third season... so it’s kinda a contract year and someone in his room needs to step up now that pp21 is gone

I think we’re gonna see the kid try and make a positive difference.... might flop at it.... but I think he’s gonna try.... and IMO he has just enough talent to make the leap to “ well above average “

not “ great “ mind you

he has more time in a Cardinals uniform than any other cb we have.... he is the Wiley old vet now
Ding, ding, ding. We have a WINNER!!!
 

BritCard

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Seems like he read this before the game

He has 1 sack and a TFL. Niners ran for 160 yards. He at least did something for once rather than being completely invisible but let's not get carried away.

They should give him more edge snaps when we are in a 4 man front. He looked good in the few snaps we put him out there. He has the best size and speed ratio to play edge in a 4.
 
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