First, nobody is signing with the Cards who has playoff team options. Second this indicates how desperately short the NFL is of quality OL. Certainly line play has changed in college. This makes it difficult to assess the likelihood of them succeeding. That concern doesn’t make them less important to acquire. We all know the high percentage of failure of QBs taken early. Still teams keep taking them. They have no choice. Waiting for the next Brady is typically a losing strategy. I believe this risk now extends to the OL. That’s why I’m saying the only way to improve the OL is the draft. Even then it gets harder to have any reasonable odds of success the further you get from the top of the draft. So you bite the bullet and choose. No guarantees. If you trade down too far you likely lose. Fortunately the Cards have cap room this year at the exact time one of the best FA defensive pools will be available. This can be a transformative year if the Cards strategize properly.
I agree Harry. Recently i have also developed the philosophy the we should only draft OT's and centers..no guards...
Most college tackles project to nfl guards...many college centers project to guards...
So it increases your flexibility if you only draft lt and c... Imagine the middle of your line being three centers...if your center gets hurt you just move over the right guard and throw in a sub...
Would prefer to stick with LTs also sine lts often project to rt but rts never project to lt.
With so many speed rushers in the modern game your rt has to be just as agile as your lt...its not like the old days when you had the nimble guy on the left and the road grader on the right...