Harry
ASFN Consultant and Senior Writer
Judging from many forum comments I’m expecting to hear an endless stream of injury related postings seeking to justify the Cards’ poor 2022 performance. The reality is the dominos seem easier to align. It started with Hopkins‘ suspension. He was Murray’s security blanket. Murray seems fragile composure-wise under the best of circumstances. It was never clear to me this was a survivable loss. Certainly if Hopkins & Brown can be successfully paired, the offense should improve. However, without the suspension I suspect Brown would never have been acquired. Turning to the draft this trade is an understandable effort to keep Murray stable.
Nevertheless, nothing justifies the philosophy of the Cards’ draft. The O-line disaster was easily predictable. Hudson wanted out and should have been allowed to leave. One of the major injustices of the NFL Players’ Agreement is that a retirement is treated like a release for cap purposes. This clause was pushed by cheap owners to save money. The Cards thus felt justified in pressuring Hudson to return. They made no serious effort to backstop his absence. Elsewhere on the line, they got lucky for awhile with Hernandez. However, Pugh’s career long injury issues finally caught up with him. Essentially little focus was directed at building line depth until very late in the draft and virtually not at all in free agency. It’s hard to argue that the possible collapse of the line was not foreseeable.
Turning to the second round pick, McBride is potentially a quality NFL player. That said, one of the dangers of BPA is that it can blind one to the fit of that player. The winner of the Mackey Award (best TE), it’s hard to argue McBride was not at least a BPA contender for this slot. The Cards selecting him ignored both the current offense’s design and the Ertz contract. They might as well have drafted a potential starting QB. I favor the teams who focus on BPA in clear areas of need.
Had Hopkins not been sidelined and the second pick not been so misguided, it seems plausible this season might have been significantly different. I do not believe Keim can escape taking some of the blame for this debacle, but most of it lies with Hopkins and should impact his future Hall of Fame status. Has he regularly cheated and finally just got caught?
The third round of the draft was harder to criticize. Losing Jones in free agency was inevitable for a realist. Jones was clearly in decline and it seemed certain some other team would overspend on him. So I was fine with letting him go. The Cards selected 2 developmental rushing prospects in round 3. These type of players usually take at least a couple of years to become impact players. It’s too early for a final judgment, but there have been the hoped for flashes of success. Again it’s important to note that beyond losing Jones, the Cards lost Peters. It again was foreseeable that aging had taken its toll. Keim undervalued his absence and allowed the interior of the D-line to be manned by unproven players. Fotu had shown no signs of being an impact player. Others, like Lawrence, appeared to be journeymen at best. In the case of both pass rushers and anchors, free agents were available, but Keim seemingly made no effort to secure even one prominent candidate.
I’ll wrapup my hindsight draft evaluation with rounds six and seven. Six was another wasted pick. Both Ward and Benjamin clearly were at least as skilled as Ingram, so this was another pointless pick. The desperation attempt to help the O-line in the seventh round may pay dividends but for 2022 it was too little, too late. This was a bad draft, though not all Keim’s fault thanks to Hopkins. if the coming off-season doesn’t focus on rebuilding the trenches, anticipate next season will be a similar disaster whomever is the coach.
Nevertheless, nothing justifies the philosophy of the Cards’ draft. The O-line disaster was easily predictable. Hudson wanted out and should have been allowed to leave. One of the major injustices of the NFL Players’ Agreement is that a retirement is treated like a release for cap purposes. This clause was pushed by cheap owners to save money. The Cards thus felt justified in pressuring Hudson to return. They made no serious effort to backstop his absence. Elsewhere on the line, they got lucky for awhile with Hernandez. However, Pugh’s career long injury issues finally caught up with him. Essentially little focus was directed at building line depth until very late in the draft and virtually not at all in free agency. It’s hard to argue that the possible collapse of the line was not foreseeable.
Turning to the second round pick, McBride is potentially a quality NFL player. That said, one of the dangers of BPA is that it can blind one to the fit of that player. The winner of the Mackey Award (best TE), it’s hard to argue McBride was not at least a BPA contender for this slot. The Cards selecting him ignored both the current offense’s design and the Ertz contract. They might as well have drafted a potential starting QB. I favor the teams who focus on BPA in clear areas of need.
Had Hopkins not been sidelined and the second pick not been so misguided, it seems plausible this season might have been significantly different. I do not believe Keim can escape taking some of the blame for this debacle, but most of it lies with Hopkins and should impact his future Hall of Fame status. Has he regularly cheated and finally just got caught?
The third round of the draft was harder to criticize. Losing Jones in free agency was inevitable for a realist. Jones was clearly in decline and it seemed certain some other team would overspend on him. So I was fine with letting him go. The Cards selected 2 developmental rushing prospects in round 3. These type of players usually take at least a couple of years to become impact players. It’s too early for a final judgment, but there have been the hoped for flashes of success. Again it’s important to note that beyond losing Jones, the Cards lost Peters. It again was foreseeable that aging had taken its toll. Keim undervalued his absence and allowed the interior of the D-line to be manned by unproven players. Fotu had shown no signs of being an impact player. Others, like Lawrence, appeared to be journeymen at best. In the case of both pass rushers and anchors, free agents were available, but Keim seemingly made no effort to secure even one prominent candidate.
I’ll wrapup my hindsight draft evaluation with rounds six and seven. Six was another wasted pick. Both Ward and Benjamin clearly were at least as skilled as Ingram, so this was another pointless pick. The desperation attempt to help the O-line in the seventh round may pay dividends but for 2022 it was too little, too late. This was a bad draft, though not all Keim’s fault thanks to Hopkins. if the coming off-season doesn’t focus on rebuilding the trenches, anticipate next season will be a similar disaster whomever is the coach.
