By Matt Swartz
FOXSportsArizona.com
The Cardinals will be looking for a few good -- and presumably large -- men in next week’s NFL draft, the public-interest high point of the “offseason” in a league that doesn’t really have an offseason anymore.
Exactly who the most prominent of those men will be is much harder to predict than it was last year, when Arizona picked fifth and took cornerback Patrick Peterson, arguably the most talented player in the draft. This year, the Cards are sitting at 13th in the first round, the byproduct of winning seven of their last nine games of the regular season to finish 8-8. They don’t have a second-round pick, which was dealt away to the Eagles in last year's trade for quarterback Kevin Kolb.
Those are about the only two certainties for the Cardinals heading into the draft, which starts next Thursday with the first round and continues through Saturday.
One near-certainty, though, is the need for at least one offensive lineman, and perhaps one talented enough to step in and start as a rookie. The Cardinals re-signed left tackle Levi Brown and brought in guard/tackle Adam Snyder as a free agent from the 49ers, but right guard Rex Hadnot was released, and right tackle Brandon Keith and guard Deuce Lutui are free agents. For those scoring at home, that’s three departures, one re-signing, one addition and an obvious hole on the right side of the line. (Center Lyle Sendlein and left guard Daryn Colledge are the other holdovers, along with Brown.)
That would seem to line up well with this year’s draft class, which is considered strong on the offensive line with tackles such as USC’s Matt Kalil, Iowa’s Riley Reiff and Stanford’s Jonathan Martin, as well as guards such as Stanford’s David DeCastro and Georgia’s Cordy Glenn.
Cards coach Ken Whisenhunt seconded that sentiment when he spoke with the media Thursday alongside general manager Rod Graves.
"I think it’s a good draft (for offensive linemen)," Whisenhunt said. “There are some talented players. Not only necessarily the top players, but through the draft. I think there’ll be opportunities, whether it’s early or middle. You never know who’s gonna be available at what position and how that fits with you, but at all three positions when we’re talking about offensive line -- tackle, guard and center – there’s good players that we like at different spots on the board."
As expected, neither Whisenhunt nor Graves would go into any specifics regarding potential targets at No. 13. But Whisenhunt wasn’t afraid to admit that the Cardinals have “made no bones about” the need to address the offensive line, an overhaul that wasn’t expected to be completed in free agency.
"To think that you were gonna get three or four (offensive linemen) in free agency, that’s just not gonna happen," Whisenhunt said.
"Opportunities in the draft to get another player that could potentially start for us – that’s what you’re always looking for. But we don’t know if we’re gonna have that opportunity. A lot of that depends on the grades of the players, how they fit with our football team."
If that opportunity doesn’t arise, Whisenhunt made it clear that the Cardinals won’t reach for an offensive lineman in the first round just to fill an apparent hole.
"What we don’t wanna do is draft a lineman just to draft a lineman because that’s what you think you have to do. You’ve gotta trust your process … and you’ve gotta pick the best player available that fits your team."
The dilemma facing the Cardinals braintrust is that their second pick doesn't come around until No. 80, in the third round. If an offensive lineman with good "value" is unavailable at No. 13, that a long time to wait for another shot at one. And in the middle of the third round, it’s impossible to know who will (or won’t) be left on the board.
While the Cards have their own evaluations and draft board nearly completed, Whisenhunt said it’s difficult to guess how things will take shape prior to the 13th pick. Mock drafts and other projections are nothing more than guesswork due to the possibility of trades before the Cardinals are on the clock.
Graves acknowledged that the missing second-round pick, the lack of certainty about who will be available at No. 13 and the cumulative depth of the offensive line class make the possibility of a trade -- more likely down than up -- higher than in some recent years.
"Certainly those (trade) options may exist for us, and we’ll see what happens ... but this is a plentiful number of offensive linemen that may offer the opportunity to do just that," Graves said.
There’s been some media speculation around Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd, an elite talent at 6-foot-3 who ran a 4.47 40-yard dash at the combine and is now projected by some as a top-10 pick. Floyd had a private visit with the Cardinals this week and would fill another apparent void as a No. 2 receiver to complement Larry Fitzgerald. While Andre Roberts has generally drawn praise from the coaches and Early Doucet has shown glimpses of talent, the production at wideout alongside Fitzgerald has been erratic.
Could Floyd be the pick at No. 13 -- even at the expense of an offensive lineman?
"He’s a good young player," Whisenhunt said of Floyd, who carries some baggage after multiple alcohol-related incidents at Notre Dame. "We got the chance to sit down and meet him and talk with him, and that’s probably one of the most rejuvenating parts of this whole process is to talk to some of these young men about their challenges, what they’ve gone through, how they’ve progressed in their careers. And we really enjoyed our time with him."
Whether that praise was indicative of interest or polite-but-meaningless coachspeak is impossible to know; the fact that Floyd was brought in for a private visit, of which each team is allowed 30, might be as meaningful as anything when trying to parse through information.
And the Cardinals staff has been in place long enough to know about misinformation and smokescreens. When asked for the team’s positional priorities heading into draft day, Graves responded with "you know we’re gonna say all of them" before Whisenhunt offered to list all the positions on both sides of the ball "in no particular order."
Whisenhunt then specified, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, "kicker."
NOTES: According to Graves, the most "intense" draft-room debate in his tenure to date was in regards to running back/kick returner LaRod Stephens-Howling, whom the diminutive Graves referred to as "about my height." ... Along with Floyd, the Cardinals also reportedly hosted a visit from Arizona State cornerback Omar Bolden. The Cards haven't drafted an ASU player since Pat Tillman in 1998. ... The Cardinals have selected an offensive lineman in the first round just once in the past 10 years, that being Levi Brown (fifth overall) in 2007. ... Arizona hasn't had a pick between No. 10 and No. 16 since 2002, when defensive tackle Wendell Bryant was chosen 12th overall.
