Cardinals Draft Thoughts

The Cardinals claim they have no glaring needs heading into the 2015 NFL Draft.  Anyone who watched them limp down the stretch last season knows that's far from true.  They need an edge pass rusher, they need another RB, they need a CB to replace Antonio Cromartie, they need to groom an eventual starter at QB, they could use another LB or 2 and they could use some depth along their offensive and defensive lines.

Despite what the Cardinals are saying, I highly suspect that the Cardinals would love to find an edge pass rusher early in the draft (i.e. number 24 overall).   Without John Abraham last year the Cardinals really struggled to get to the QB, and considering the whole defense is predicated around pressuring the QB that's a pretty big issue to have.  Three names to keep an eye on are Randy Gregory, Shane Ray and Bud Dupree.  All three have been to projected to go much higher than the Cardinals selection, but Gregory and Ray are dropping and Dupree could really land anywhere from the top 10 to bottom of round 1.  If any are available to the Cards, I suspect they will be wearing red.  If they don't go DE at 24, look for them to go either RB, MLB, CB or DT.

Elsewhere?

When Carson Palmer was healthy last year there wasn't a better team in the league than the Cardinals.  When Palmer went down with his knee injury though, the Cardinals season was essentially over.  He is vitally important to the Cardinals offense.  Without Palmer, the Cardinals passing attack suffered, teams focused on stopping their rushing offense, which they did, they then started losing the time of possession and field position battles and as a result put way too much pressure on their defense, it got quite ugly.  Drew Stanton returns as the back up QB, as a back up he is quite good, when asked to carry the load though he struggled and was exposed.  Logan Thomas will enter camp as the third QB, he couldn't beat out Ryan Lindley last year though, that is very troubling as Lindley was not a very good QB.  I suspect that Logan Thomas is not long for the Arizona Cardinals (unless they move him to TE).  What am I getting at here?  The Cardinals could really use another QB, unfortunately it's not a great draft for QB's.  They reportedly have some interest in Brett Hundley and I could get on board with that, I was quite impressed with him in the games I saw him play last year (although, I admittedly did not see all of his games).

I keep seeing Todd Gurley and Melvin Gordon projected to the Cardinals in the mock drafts.  The Gurley pick makes some sense to me, the Gordon one not so much.  Let's not forget, the Cardinals still have Andre Ellington, why would they want a clone of him in Gordon too?   What the Cardinals need is a big, between the tackles, chain moving RB who complements Ellington, Gurley would provide that, Gordon would not.   Adrian Peterson would provide that too, but it doesn't appear the Cardinals are willing to meet the Vikings asking price for him.  Back to the draft, a few other between the tackles RB's to keep an eye on for the Cardinals would be Jay Ajayi, David Cobb, David Johnson and T.J. Yeldon.

I think the Cards are okay at WR and TE, some depth along the OL would be nice but it's not a glaring need either.

Outside of an edge pass rusher, a big DT to replace Dan Williams may be on the Cardinals radar along the defensive line, especially if someone like Danny Shelton falls to them.

At LB, the Cardinals really missed Darryl Washington last year, he may or may not be back this season.  Even if he is back, you never know for how long.  Kevin Mintor really hasn't established himself either so I suspect they would be open to bringing in a MLB.  I could see them looking at Benardrick McKinney, Denzel Perryman, Eric Kendricks and Paul Dawson in rounds 1-3.

As for the secondary, I think they are fine at safety, another CB would be nice though and given that Bruce Arians likes his corners tall and quick, keep an eye on the following names in rounds 1-3:  Eric Rowe, Byron Jones and Jalen Collins.