A quote from Dennis Green that points to Derek Johnson at #8.

[Lomax to Green 84]

This is really reading into things and I admit I am fishing a bit here, but Dennis Green has said a few things recently that point to the Cards looking at Derek Johnson.

A couple of weeks ago he made a comment that New England got by just fine with less than stellar cornerbacks, basically implying that New England's great defensive line, linebacker, and safety play allowed the Patriots to get by with marginal talent at cornerback.

I think Clancy Pendergast has Dennis Green's ear. Green has gone on record numerous times that he thinks Pendergast is a future NFL head coach and he loves the way Pendergast game plans on Sunday's. Pendergast's background prior to coming to the Cards was as a linebacker coach, first with Dallas and then with Cleveland. He was the coach who got Jamir Miller to go from a 3.5 sack guy with the Cards to leading the NFL in sacks back in 2001 with the Browns. He also was instrumental in the development of Andra Davis and Co. that year the Browns purged their linebacker corp (Miller, Dwayne Rudd etc..) and the Browns went with rookies and 2nd year guys at linebacker and did a very fine job.

Green needs to win now. I think he realizes that he made some mistakes at Minnesota by not putting enough emphasis on the defense. He also realizes that the defense is far superior to our offense at this point and is probably one elite athlete away from being dominant and able to get us to the playoffs.

If Pendergast has Green's ear as I suspect he does, I'll bet he is clamoring for Derek Johnson to pair up with opposite Carlos Dansby. Both Dansby and Green credit Pendergast for coming up with creative ways to utilize Dansby's immense talent.

Give Pendergast a virtual Dansby clone in Johnson and see what happens.

 

[BACH]

This is really reading into things and I admit I am fishing a bit here, but Dennis Green has said a few things recently that point to the Cards looking at Derek Johnson.

A couple of weeks ago he made a comment that New England got by just fine with less than stellar cornerbacks, basically implying that New England's great defensive line, linebacker, and safety play allowed the Patriots to get by with marginal talent at cornerback.

I think Clancy Pendergast has Dennis Green's ear. Green has gone on record numerous times that he thinks Pendergast is a future NFL head coach and he loves the way Pendergast game plans on Sunday's. Pendergast's background prior to coming to the Cards was as a linebacker coach, first with Dallas and then with Cleveland. He was the coach who got Jamir Miller to go from a 3.5 sack guy with the Cards to leading the NFL in sacks back in 2001 with the Browns. He also was instrumental in the development of Andra Davis and Co. that year the Browns purged their linebacker corp (Miller, Dwayne Rudd etc..) and the Browns went with rookies and 2nd year guys at linebacker and did a very fine job.

Green needs to win now. I think he realizes that he made some mistakes at Minnesota by not putting enough emphasis on the defense. He also realizes that the defense is far superior to our offense at this point and is probably one elite athlete away from being dominant and able to get us to the playoffs.

If Pendergast has Green's ear as I suspect he does, I'll bet he is clamoring for Derek Johnson to pair up with opposite Carlos Dansby. Both Dansby and Green credit Pendergast for coming up with creative ways to utilize Dansby's immense talent.

Give Pendergast a virtual Dansby clone in Johnson and see what happens.

Another fact that can support this is that Pendergast was very impressed with the quality of the CBs that should be available at #44.

 

[JeffGollin]

A couple of weeks ago he made a comment that New England got by just fine with less than stellar cornerbacks, basically implying that New England's great defensive line, linebacker, and safety play allowed the Patriots to get by with marginal talent at cornerback.
I believe he said this within the context of why the Cardinals didn't pick up a CB in free agency. Green added that he felt "there figured to be a lot of quality CB's available in the draft and that he was not afraid of starting rookies at that position.

If anything, the above comment (coupled with Bach's recalling that Pendergast had indicated that there should be good CB's available at #44) might point instead to the Cards opting for a RB and not a LB at #8.

I still think it will come down to "best player" as Dennis sees it on his board. Your guess is as good as mind as to where Johnson, Benson, Brown, C Williams or Rolle will be slotted on that board.

Final note - Pat Kirwan on NFL Network last night said that Tom Donaghue told him that the Henry for Shelton deal was back down to "player for player" but that it appeared that the Cardinals wanted to wait til draft day to see which RB's might drop down to them. (Kirwan surmised it would be probably Benson we were targeting). He then made a somewhat contradictory statement; speculating that "if the deal goes through, it will probably get done 1 or 2 days before draft day, with the Cardinals then choosing a CB with their 8th pick."

If there is any shred of truth to what Kirwan is saying, it would still point to RB first and CB second depending on the Henry deal.

 

[Pariah]

He then made a somewhat contradictory statement; speculating that "if the deal goes through, it will probably get done 1 or 2 days before draft day, with the Cardinals then choosing a CB with their 8th pick."

I'm not sure that's contradictory (confusing, and unclear, yes, but not contradictory). If we wait to see if Benson falls to us, we'll take benson because he'll be there. If we do a deal for Henry, it'll have to be before the draft because if we waited we would draft Benson.

At least, that's how I see it.

 

[Camshaft]

Per the radio conversation with DG as related by listener "He (DG) will take the best available player no matter what postition RB, CB, LB. You want good players whether you have 2 at that position or not." We have mediocre RBs, a void at CB, but we do have good LBs. This could indicate an LB is on Green's mind/radar and there's only one LB worth a #8 pick -- Derrick Johnson.

 

[Russ Smith]

I'm sure Green likes Johnson but there's a few mistakes in your post. Pendergast was with Cleveland in 2003, and with Dallas in 2001(96-2002) so he didn't coach Jamir Miller in 2001. Not to mention that Jamir Miller didn't lead the NFL in sacks in 2001, Michael Strahan did with an NFL record 22.5 thanks to Brett Favre taking a dive. Miller didn't make the top 5 shown on NFL.com so at best he was 6th. The year Clancy was in Cleveland, Jamir didn't play.

Johnson and Miller really are not all that similar beyond height and speed, Jamir was a bigtime pass rusher at UCLA who our brilliant DC decided to use as a runstuffer. he still had a great year in '98 but when we wouldn't give him "Ray Lewis" money, he demanded we change the defense to let him rush the passer, because he knew sacks = more money. Mac wouldn't do that, so we let him get his own deal. Alot of teams that looked at Miller were planning on converting him to DE anyways. Johnson will never be as big as Jamir , what Johnson does best is just wreak havoc all over the field because of his speed and pursuit, and ability to cause turnovers.

 

[abomb]

Very solid post Holian.

A-Bomb

 

[slanidrac16]

Here's the 1,000,000 dollar question.

If we don't get Henry , do you want:

A, A "great" rb and a "good" cb or,
B, A "great" cb and a "good" rb?

I say great and good because it is all conjecture and potential.

"A's" possible combinations are:

#8- Benson/Williams/or Brown and
#44-Jackson/Green

"B's" possible combinations are

#8- Rolle/Pacman,or Rodgers and
#44-Fason, Arrington, Morency.

It looks like "A's" gives us the best selection.

 

[Duckjake]

Here's the 1,000,000 dollar question.

If we don't get Henry , do you want:

A, A "great" rb and a "good" cb or,
B, A "great" cb and a "good" rb?

I say great and good because it is all conjecture and potential.

"A's" possible combinations are:

#8- Benson/Williams/or Brown and
#44-Jackson/Green

"B's" possible combinations are

#8- Rolle/Pacman,or Rodgers and
#44-Fason, Arrington, Morency.

It looks like "A's" gives us the best selection.

I want a great running back. We've had a great CB and all it got us were 5 win seasons. Time to try something different.

 

[black]

Man i wish draft day were here already. Trade for Henry, and get DJ! Perfect for us. Give quan the quan.