With rookie minicamp underway, I wanted to know a little bit about some of the players, and I thought you might find it interesting as well. Some of them I had heard a little about, some of them I just thought was interesting. Also, some of them won’t be with the team after this weekend.
Once it was announced who the Cardinals had signed in undrafted free agency, I did a little write up on some of the players, and you can read it by clicking
here. It is the last part of the post.
Tight end Travis Wilson, Utah
I’m almost sure that the tight end tryout-player Travis Wilson is the same one who played quarterback at Utah and was a quarterback prospect in the draft in 2016. I couldn’t confirm it, though. That Travis Wilson did make the switch to tight end before last season, and he did attend Utah. He is also listed with one year of experience on the sheet Darren Urban tweeted out. I am going to go of the assumption that it is him.
Supposedly he is a great athlete. He is standing 6-7 and according to Jordan Palmer, who works with college players, he runs faster than Deshaun Watson. It’s easy to see on his college tape that he certainly does not shy away from contact, and he was a dual threat quarterback, so it is not new to him to create something with the ball in his hands. In fact, his college teammates called him “bulldog”.
In reality, Wilson is facing a very steep uphill battle, and since he has only played tight end for about a year and a half, he needs a lot of coaching in blocking technique and route running. I do think, however, that he is a fascinating prospect.
Cornerback Tavierre Thomas, Ferris State
Before committing to Ferris State, Thomas did have interest from Division I schools like Iowa, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan, but he did not have the grades to get a scholarship. In other words, it was not because of his football ability that he attended Ferris State and not a bigger school.
The last two seasons Thomas has been a Division II first team-All American. Last season he was also named Defensive Back of the Year. In two seasons at Ferris State he had 10 interceptions and 38 pass breakups. It was obviously on a relatively low level, but when prospects play at that level I guess all you can expect is that they dominate, and Thomas did that.
Thomas is said to be a sure tackler.
Wide receiver Trent Sherfield, Vanderbilt
I could be way off here but in the Arizona Cardinals Underground podcast I thought it sounded like Paul Calvisi had heard from one of the scouts to keep an eye on Sherfield.
Based on talking with teams leading up to the draft, Sherfield expected to be selected no later than the fifth round and thought he could go as high as the third round.
Pro Days can’t be exactly compared with the Scouting Combine due to the surface, the weather conditions and other variables, but for the sake of evaluating Sherfield, who was not invited to the Combine, I have selected the numbers I think has relevance to a wide receiver. I actually think some of the drills translate fairly well to the playing field, unlike with most other position groups. His 10 yard split was not that great (though it was the same as Odell Beckham’s), and his vertical jump was not very impressive either. His short shuttle, though, would have ranked him #10 among wide receivers, and his three cone drill would have ranked him #12. His broad jump would have ranked him #5.
Defensive back Deatrick Nichols, South Florida
I’ve seen a few people be exited that Nichols choose to join the Cardinals, so I wanted to see why that was.
The last two seasons Nichols has been voted first team All-American Athletic Conference, and three years in a row he has been selected to at least some All-American team, which I think is especially interesting because he played outside cornerback two seasons ago but moved inside to nickelback last season. In college the nickelback has to be one of a team’s best defensive backs due to all the spread offenses. In South Florida’ defense their head coach wants the nickelback to be good at both man coverage, zone coverage, run support and blitzing. Nichols flourished in that role.
He is known as a ferocious hitter, and there are videos of some of his tackles on Youtube. I would copy one video to this post, but I don’t know how I do it, so I have to post a link to the video instead. Click
here to see it.
Also, he projects as a nickelback in the NFL, and I think it would be great to have a nickelback named Nichols.
Safety A.J. Howard, Appalachian State
Howard started as a true freshman and played every game that season, as well as the next two seasons.
He has great intangibles and a very impressive football IQ. He is great at diagnosing plays, and he knows where everyone is supposed to be lined up.
He was the leader of a strong defense that last season, among other things, ranked #14 in touchdowns given up, #30 in yards given up in the red zone, #12 in interceptions and #32 in first downs given up. Remember there are 130 teams in those rankings.
I also thought it was interesting that Steve Wilks himself was present at Appalachian State’s Pro Day. I don’t know it for sure, but I doubt that he attends many Pro Day’s in person.
