Building through the draft doesn't mean you draft a player and instantly plug them in as a starter. That is not how it works.
It's more likely when you're 8-26 the past two seasons, haven't kept any of your young starting-caliber talent from the previous regime, and haven't made any major free agency moves to buttress those positions.
The point of this thread is not to only look at who's starting, but who is earning playing time game-to-game. Julian Okwara got nearly 3x the snaps Xavier Thomas did last week. Khrys Barnes got more than 2x the snaps Owen Pappoe did.
This is why I laugh at the "build through the draft" strategy. Every team is trying to do this. The reason they all aren't successful is because it is really challenging to do. The best teams are the ones you utilize every avenue to talent acquisition to fill out their roster. They don't use the same ones every year, and are flexible to what their roster needs at that point in time. Some years you have to trade for talent. Other years you add draft picks. Some FA classes you sign the top guys. Others the mid guys.
One side of it is drafting good players. The next phase of it is retaining the young players on your roster. Then you replace the guys leaving your roster with young, cheap players and strategically invest in the most valuable players you've developed at the most valuable positions.
Unfortunately, Monti wasn't willing to pursue or unable to sell any pending free agents from before Keim and released a significant number of other young players that could be developing right now. Cam Thomas played 8 snaps for a four-win team.
He chose for Wilson to be his WR2.
I don't believe that Michael Wilson is part of the short- or long-term problem for the Cardinals, TBH.
Which veteran should give way to a rookie that is on the bench right now?
SMB, probably Emari Demercado. If we end up 1-5 or 2-6, that list will grow longer and you start wondering if Evan Brown and/or Will Hernandez should start yielding snaps to some of the young prospects.
