Russ said
"McNown is not a Card, McCown is. The Cards had 2 2nd year QB's on the roster and they signed Blake, it was obvious we weren't taking Lefty, I agree he would have been the best pick frankly I think we can blame the coaching situation for that. Mac knew he had a better chance of winning games THIS year with Blake than with a rookie. Leftwich is going to be a star but he threw 3 picks in his first start, Houston, and then lit up a terrible San Diego secondary. The Cards thought we could win 8 games or more with this club and Blake, they knew they couldn't with a rookie QB starting.
IF Mac were more secure as a coach we might have drafted Leftwich, we discussed all of this on this board before the draft.
Both Pace and Johnson said they were told by other NFL teams they were going in the first round if the Cards had passed on them, we don't know for sure but just because Kiper and ESPN said 2nd rounder doesn't make it true.
Pace is a more complete player than Suggs, not as good of a pass rusher right now which hurts but the Cards have yet to start their DL intact this season. Bell missed 2-3 games, when he came back Bryant went out. When the line is intact(hopefully Sunday) it'll be a lot easier to judge Pace. He hasn't showed anything special yet in the season but he impressed a lot of people in camp and preseason so I'm still hopeful."
My points was that you select the best player available. If you have a qb problem you select a franchise player if the oppurtunity is there. If McCown is also a franchise qb, you trade him for the best picks you can get. That is why I brought up Wolf.
It shows everytime at the draft. Unless there are some expansion teams at least two or more of the top ten doesn't have a qb. In this draft you had Cin, AZ, Chi, Dal and Car. That Lefty escapes them is simply stupid. It's all right like last year when Car could choose from harrington and Peppers, the latter being LT potential, but unless there are safe picks it is very risky to pass up a qb. Now, AZ could have gone for Boller and rest him on the bench for a year. Boller was never ready to play pro now in the first place, but he sure had potential. IMO only Lefty looked like he could do some good right now, but even if he is the most ready of the bunch, he can thank Jimmy Smith that he bails him out. Otherwise you would see lots of ints, which anyways are common for all qbs. (Even a first ballot HOFer like Elway threw a bunch of them his first year)
Regarding AZs HC it is awful when you force wins. None whatsoever with a slightest knowledge of football would call AZ an even team. If they reached 8-8 that would be because of luck and some very good breaks, like going on a streak and feeling invinsible.
On your point regarding Pace. The fact that he had shined in preseason doesn't mean squat come real games. Almost all rookie DEs struggles the first season. That doesn't mean he won't become a good player eventually, but unless you have an otherwise great front four which enables the rookie to play role or up to his strength, he will almost alwasy struggle. Suggs plays only the pass, Freeney did the same last year, Taylor and kearse the same before that.
What you also must put into the equation is that Pace, Brayton, Kelsay and Redding looked very similar. Of the four of them only Kelsay has not shined in preseason. That means that chances are that you would have gotten at least one of these, and even if you had Pace ranked highest, it still evens out could you get a player like T. Pierce, Doss, Hamlin, Peterson or Mathis on top of the DE.
Besides if you wanted to look at the DEs with the most potential you might wanna look closely at Omenyiora, Mitchell or Garay.
They are all rough projects but what I think that if Mitchell finds himself or Garay stays injury free they will be very good.
Omenyiora will be a pro bowler barring serious injuries, mark my words.
(Thanks for the polite response anyway, though)
