Lest We Forget-----

[Catfish]

Just a few short weeks ago, our roster was on the verge of being in shambles. Lets review.

Kurt Warner RETIRED

Anquan Boldin was demanding a trade

Karlos Dansby and Antrell Rolle bolted for big money

Bertrand Berry and Chike Okeafor were ancient

Bryant McFadden played with his back to the ball

Neil Rackers had yet to proove that he could make a clutch kick

Lets see---(one sure HOF QB, one possible future HOF WR, five other defensive starters, and one unreliable kicker) ALL GONE or more or less useless.

SO-----during free agency and the draft, ALL that our front office, scouting unit, and coaching staff was able to do was------

A. Get a decent back-up QB for Leinart, plus draft a decent developmental project QB

B. Trade Boldin, and draft a perfectly suited slot receiver with glue hands and freaky YAC and return skills.

C. Draft the most athletically gifted LB in the draft to replace Dansby, and bring in Kerry Rhodes, (better suited to play our brand of FS than Rolle was)

D. Bring in Joey Porter as an edge rusher to replace the Retired Berry, and the aging Okeafor, (plus they drafted one of the best potential edge rushers in the draft in Schofield), though he may not play much this year due to recent knee injury.

E. Traded McFadden to get a draft pick for a developmental QB

F. Brought in Jay Feeley to be our kicker, and found the kid as a (UDFA)who made the most clutch kick in college this past year to provide competition for him in training camp. ERROR---HUNTER LAWRENCE WAS NOT SIGNED HERE, HE WENT TO TAMPA BAY---SORRY---CATFISH

G. And Oh------the somehow managed to snag the BEST Nose Tackle in the draft to anchor the middle of our defensive line, and occupy blockers to free our new WILB to get to the ball carrier.

F. Not only did they accomplish this, but they had to do some amazing maneuvering to get it done, (which until now, was unheard of with our Front Office).

SOOOOOOO----- I just hope that some of you can forgive those of us who seem to be just a little more than content to be where we are at this point in the off-season. Its just that we don't get to see our Cardinals rebuild nearly and entire defense in one off-season, and maybe even make it better than it was for right now, but almost certainly better in the long run. Heck yes I am HAPPY !!!!!

 

[Doug]

Go Fish Go!!! Amen Brother!!!:d

 

[DemsMyBoys]

And Fan Fest is Saturday and I've got new batteries in my camera!

Woo-Hoo!

Cannot wait for this season to start.

 

[LittleDavis]

Damn...I wish I could watch all of the games with you fish. No matter what, you see this thing in a similar way as I. Thanks man. I appreciate your perspective.

 

[Vermont Maverick]

This is awesome, Catfish.

What's really awesome is that most of us trust what the FO and coaching staff our doing, and give them the benefit of the doubt. Wow, just wow.

 

[NeverSayDieFan]

Well put, Catfish...

This Cardinals' front-office is active! Will every move work out? No, course not. That's like saying every girl you date you're going to fall in love w/an marry. BUT, it's clear there's a "plan" of some kind. ...And with an engineer like Whiz' having a strong say, can we expect anything less? I'm confident the "needs" will get addressed in time. GO CARDS!

 

[Catfish]

Damn...I wish I could watch all of the games with you fish. No matter what, you see this thing in a similar way as I. Thanks man. I appreciate your perspective.

I would welcome that too LD. I watch the games at home now with my son (Nooch), who is a sometimes poster on this board. I REALLY miss going to the games, and rely on you guys and gals to keep me posted on the fun there. BUT, know that I do watch with all of you in spirit. The Cards family is MY family too.

 

[SuperSpck]

Good stuff. I'll drink the Kool-Aid until I'm given a reason not to.

 

[Lomax to Green 84]

Excellent analysis of our roster situation! Good job!!

 

[Pariah]

Good stuff. I'll drink the Kool-Aid until I'm given a reason not to.

As an aside, did you know it wasn't Kool-Aid that those kooks drank at Jonestown? It was Flavoraid.

Just dropping some knowledge on you, Spock.

 

[SuperSpck]

As an aside, did you know it wasn't Kool-Aid that those kooks drank at Jonestown? It was Flavoraid.

Just dropping some knowledge on you, Spock.

"Like the Jim Jones cult I'll taake you out with one punch."
Nice to know the lyrics still hold up with that in mind.
And for the record, I did not.

 

[Zeno]

F. Brought in Jay Feeley to be our kicker, and found the kid as a (UDFA)who made the most clutch kick in college this past year to provide competition for him in training camp.

I don't see a rookie kicker listed on the official site as being signed. When did this happen?

 

[Catfish]

I don't see a rookie kicker listed on the official site as being signed. When did this happen?

Sorry Zeno, ----- I got that from a post that Cardiac put up yesterday afternoon or last evening. I just went back to find it, and the next page he said that it had been removed. Later a poster said the guy had signed with Tampa. I didn't see that page till now. Kids name was Hunter Lawrence from Texas. Wasn't trying to mislead anyone.

 

[mrbyte]

hey that made me feel real great about this draft

thanks

 

[Mitch]

You The Man, Catfish!

 

[Buckybird]

Fish

 

[Cardsfanstl]

Great post Catfish.

 

[Cardiac]

Sorry Zeno, ----- I got that from a post that Cardiac put up yesterday afternoon or last evening. I just went back to find it, and the next page he said that it had been removed. Later a poster said the guy had signed with Tampa. I didn't see that page till now. Kids name was Hunter Lawrence from Texas. Wasn't trying to mislead anyone.

Yep. You guys are fast and furious with posting and I tried to correct the misinformation. Should have done an edit instead. Hint Hint Catfish.

Very good post btw. Now if we can just do something, anything about the CB situation I would grade the offseason as an A.

Our pass defense may be better this year due to an improved pass rush (Porter added and Cody/Davis/Baggs) stepping up. CC's continued improvement. Rhodes will be an upgrade at FS (Cbus, objection noted). This will allow Adub to factor more in the blitzes. Hopefully Washington can prove to be the missing piece for covering TE's.

Rome can't be rebuilt in one offseason but I expect the Cards to have a winning season at minimum.

 

[CardsFan88]

I agree, and while some players may bust, others may be much better than we anticipate. I think if ML fails, which is a possibility, we have taken steps to have a competent replacement, and may have drafted the best passing qb in the draft.

We did indeed remake our defense after being left out to dry by Rolle and Dansby (which was their prerogative and ok).

We were proactive and got KR, which if we had not, our draft might have been much different, which I think would've been a shame.

We signed a good kicker in Feely. I love what Rackers did for us, but it was quite obvious he was kicking 10-15 yards less on a consistent basis for kickoffs. Who knows how badly the leg is. It is a risk, but when he came back, his kickoffs were even 5 or more yards shorter than the 10-15 yards less he was earlier in the season.

We went for players our coaches wanted. I remember reading how under whiz and grimm they told the scouts what sort of players they were looking for, and had them focus on those types of players.

Then with our draft, we were proactive in getting them.

That's why I feel a little bit more confident about some of our riskier picks. These were guys our coaching staff WANTED, even to the point of trading up to secure them.

I also have internally thought the question, we lost good players, we got back good and maybe better players overall, so for a defense that had talent but had some poor play, I can see us being a much better defensive unit. After all Rolle and Dansby were on the field and helped comprise the defense that was so torched in the playoffs.

So in a weird way, even if the cards didn't initiate the snowball at the top of the mountain, they may have conducted a process that left the cardinals better. Addition by subtraction. Addition by addition.

I think we can be better than last year. Just depends on QB play imo. If ML sucks, I believe DA can come in, and skelton while probably not being ready this year, could compete in 2011.

The cards took a Mike Tyson uppercut, but shrugged it off. Even if we take a step back, we could of taken 5 steps back. That said, we could end up a step ahead of where we were.

I'm optimistic. Not just for this year either. I think Rod Graves has finally learned. Whatever he was missing, Whiz and Grimm seemed to have provided it. Now with this experience I think we got bright days ahead of us with of course an occasional rain or cloudy sky.

 

[Cardiac]

The cards took a Mike Tyson uppercut, but shrugged it off. Even if we take a step back, we could of taken 5 steps back. That said, we could end up a step ahead of where we were.

Great analogy.

I'm optimistic. Not just for this year either. I think Rod Graves has finally learned. Whatever he was missing, Whiz and Grimm seemed to have provided it. Now with this experience I think we got bright days ahead of us with of course an occasional rain or cloudy sky.

Most of what RG has learned is....well he now has Michael that will allow him to do his thing. The top 120 board was a DG thing which he got from the Walsh tree. Of course Whis and Keim etc get a ton of credit as well. The rain or cloudy days will happen to any team but at least we also now have an umbrella.

 

[CardsFan88]

I was thinking some more and came up with this.

Rod Graves knew how to structure the salary cap, so as to have the ability to pay for our best players as well as flexibility in bringing in decent, relatively cheap players. But he was only good at structuring the roster for the right players.

It took Whiz and Grimm to put the inspiration behind WHY Graves was doing what he was doing. To point out the players and attributes for which our coaches wanted, the scouts identified, and Graves did his cap maneuvering to allow us to make those moves.

It's good to follow some best practices. Especially when in football alot of best practices came from the Bill Walsh era of the 49ers.

Much props to Keim, and all the scouts as well.

Congratulations Cardinals, you now have a first rate front office, in all 3 main areas, (and our medical and weight training staff is pretty good too), and it appears they work well together. Each area seems to be 'pulling weight' and able to thrive with each other, rather than competing against each other. They have an idea, they have vision, aren't afraid, and work well together to achieve that vision. I LOVE IT!!!

 

[Catfish]

I was thinking some more and came up with this.

Rod Graves knew how to structure the salary cap, so as to have the ability to pay for our best players as well as flexibility in bringing in decent, relatively cheap players. But he was only good at structuring the roster for the right players.

It took Whiz and Grimm to put the inspiration behind WHY Graves was doing what he was doing. To point out the players and attributes for which our coaches wanted, the scouts identified, and Graves did his cap maneuvering to allow us to make those moves.

It's good to follow some best practices. Especially when in football alot of best practices came from the Bill Walsh era of the 49ers.

Much props to Keim, and all the scouts as well.

Congratulations Cardinals, you now have a first rate front office, in all 3 main areas, (and our medical and weight training staff is pretty good too), and it appears they work well together. Each area seems to be 'pulling weight' and able to thrive with each other, rather than competing against each other. They have an idea, they have vision, aren't afraid, and work well together to achieve that vision. I LOVE IT!!!

Well put 88-----I believe you have nailed it. What I find truly amazing, is that where we, (as Cardinals fans), formerly stood mostly alone, and in defiance of our detractors, we are now becoming united with pride in our successes both on and off the field. What a difference, and what a GREAT feeling!!!!!

 

[NeverSayDieFan]

Cardinal Nation??

Now, to some that may sound kinduv' of silly, but to me, it gives me a sense of PRIDE! A sense of belonging. Years ago the idea of anything, whether it be Cardinal Nation or This is how we play Cardinal Football, was unheard of. Today, it's reality. I guess I can sum it up best this way. When I go to the local sports bar and wear something "Cardinal" I don't get the, Are you of your freakin' mind-look. I doubt we'll ever be the media's darlings. But, I'm okay with that as I share & ENJOY my Cardinal "moments" w/ all of you. My Cardinal family. GO CARDS! Mark in SC.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

 

[Doc Cardinal]

Catfish and collard greens.