Predicting BA&SK's 53

[Mitch]

QB (3): Palmer; Stanton; Barkley

Picking Barkley up for a 7th round pick is looking like another wise move for Steve Keim. Imagine if Barkley develops into a very good #2 behind Carson Palmer---Keim will have acquired his #1 and #2 QB for a 6th (swapped for a 7th) and 7th---so basically one 6th rounder is what it took for Keim to bring Palmer and Barkley to AZ.

RB (5): David Johnson; Chris Johnson; Ellington* (K. Williams if Ellington is traded); Taylor; Penny

BA said tonight that "Stepfan is core." He also said that Penny plays STs but needs to be groomed in those roles. Penny brings a power element that is too hard to pass up.

TE (3): Fells; Gresham; Niklas

Momah is eligible for the PS. They like Valles too.

WR (6): Fitzgerald; Floyd; John Brown; Jaron Brown; Nelson; Golden

Golden is the best STs option. He's had two good games receiving and---he is a feisty blocker.

OL (8): Veldheer; Iupati; Shipley; Mathis; Humphries; Watford; Toner; Boehm

Watford and Toner will dress on game days. Toner may be the 4th or 5th best OL on the team right now. He is playing superb football. Watford passes his test at LT tonight. They won't try to add a swing tackle.

DT (3): Peters; X. Williams; Bryant

They probably would like to trade Peters---but his salary and injury history would prohibit a trade. Bryant sticks because Keim needs to make a trade for a good CB and, it is going to take giving up Josh Mauro or Ed Stinson....or Andre Ellington.

DE (5): Campbell; Rucker; Nkemdiche; Mauro* (Stinson---if Mauro is traded); Gunter

Mauro will get the most interest and while they like Mauro a lot the need at CB is too great.

ILB (4): Minter; Bucannon; Fua; Louis

BA said that Fua can fill in on the outside while Kareem Martin is out. Louis is a standout on STs, enough so to let Chris Clemons and Donald Butler go..

OLB (4): Golden; Jones; Martin; Okafor

Keim will look to add another OLB---but good ones are hard to find this time of year. Riddick could now be a legitimate consideration.

CB (4) Peterson; Williams; Bethel; TRADE (TBA for DE Josh Mauro or RB Andre Ellington or S D.J. Swearinger);.

S (5): Mathieu; Jefferson; Swearinger*; Branch; Christian

If they have to give up Swearinger to acquire a CB, they like Marqui Christian enough to make the deal. Plus they could also, at some point, bring Chris Clemons back if need be.

ST (3): Butler; Canaday; Catanzaro

They are fine with Butler---they don't agree with us the fans on that one.

Pre-Season game #4: AZ 38 DEN 17

After a here we going again start---the Cardinals played a very good game tonight. Usually the Broncos' young talent beats up on the Cardinals' in the 4th pre-season game---and while some may have thought going in that this game was going to be the Paxton lynch show---it turned out to be the Matt Barkley, Elijhaa Penny, Robert Nkemdiche, Chandler Catanzaro show!

Finally this pre-season all of Steve Keim's superb roster building made itself visible thanks to much improved QB play, a continued strong effort by the 2nd team offensive line, especially in the running game, big rushing performances by Penny and Williams, and a dominating young defensive line. Plus, aside from one poor coverage in the kicking game, the STs were very respectable.

 

[splitsecond]

I really don't see Swearinger being traded, Ellington wouldn't surprise me but I think it would be a last resort or for a player we wouldn't expect to be available via trade. I just think DJ fits the mold of a hard hitting safety that Keim wants after Rashad Johnson fell apart in Carolina.

I also don't see Barkley or Penny making the roster, although I would really like to keep Barkley around as a long-term backup. Penny is Willaim Powellall over again.

I do agree on most everything else though, especially that we need to trade for a CB if one can be had for a reasonable price. Williams needs more time to develop, and I would guess that's gonna take half the season in a beat-case scenario.

 

[Camshaft]

We need a good DB. Good DB's cost money we don't have. In order to get something good, we'll have to give up something good. After all, we're the askers. We'll probably have to give up Michael Floyd. He'll save us 7 mil. He's a huge talent loss, but I think our receiving corp can asorb it.

 

[Shaggy]

I doubt they want to trade/get rid of Swearinger or Mauro for a CB. I think they are happy with Williams and Bethel. I doubt we go after another CB unless there is a awesome vet that becomes available.

I still think Ellington might be traded after seeing how well Penny has been this preseason.

 

[jbeecham]

I think Ellington has run the ball better than Chris Johnson in the pre-season. CJ is better between the tackles, but Ellington has better break away speed if you can get him in open space. Ellington is also a better receiver & obviously a lot younger. I like Penny though, I'd keep him over Stephan Taylor, but Taylor is a better special teams player (ST is new to Penny).

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Some interesting developments when it come to depth, because of the injuries, and the healthy of some players.

1. Earl Watford is healthy so neither Wetzel or Crisp makes the final 53. (enter Red Bryant). I 100% agree your active offensive linemen are Veldheer, Iupati, Shipley, Mathis, Humphries (who has looked REALLY good lately), Watford (who is going to give Shipley a run for his money and may be starting by the bye week), and Toner. Not bad, not bad at all.

2. Kareem Martin is hurt, and Tristan Okalungo is hurt (I will bet he goes on IR for the year). Leaving Alex Okafor as the only true OLBer backup, yet this makes Alani Fua a lock for the final 53.

3. I think Penny is going to the practice squad, and Gabe Martin will make the final 53 because of injuries that have hit the linebacker depth. While Fua is listed as a ILB, he is going to be looked at as a reserve OLBer when breaking down the roster.

4. Cariel Brooks did what a player of his talent level does, played poorly. Britten Golden and Justin Bethel are your gunners, so why keep Brooks. I would pencil in Harlan Miller, who may just make the club by default and because he is a draft pick. That is not optimal to say the least. That last cornerback spot is VERY unsure.

5. I still think Matt Barkley doesn't make the roster, and who would make it in his place ? Maybe Chris Clemons, or Mathias Farley ?

6. I do smell some sort of trade coming.

7. In my very humble opinion, we will have 3 big surprises this year. Markus Golden is going to be a beast for us. DJ Humphries is going to have growing pains, but by mid-season will be an asset. Robert Nkimdiche is going to find his stride, and have our starting defensive line of Campbell, Peters, and Nkimdiche by the end of the year. That is a VERY scary front 3 for a 3-4, since they are all HUGE men, and two out of the three are ridiculously athletic for their size. Add Chandler Jones, and Markus Golden, and I just say "Good Luck" to the offensive line that has to deal with that.

Bring on the season.

 

[WindCardinal]

I think we need to keep at least 5 OLB for now since Martin will be out at least week 1 and Okafor is a big question mark. Riddick had a good game last night, even though it was against scrubs. We need K. Martin back asap he was getting pressure on almost every snap.

 

[b8rtm8nn]

I think we need to keep at least 5 OLB for now since Martin will be out at least week 1 and Okafor is a big question mark. Riddick had a good game last night, even though it was against scrubs. We need K. Martin back asap he was getting pressure on almost every snap.

Fua also plays OLB and BA mentioned that could roll with 3 OLB for now until Martin recovers - sounds like no Riddick and Fua is in based on his comments

 

[binkar]

Great stuff from Mitch

Couple random notes:

1. Disappointed that Kareem Martin got hurt. I hope it's a minor injury. I thought he was playing by far his best football since he'd been drafted.
2. I obviously don't know who will all be on the practice squad, but if we don't have a number of players claimed by other teams I think it will be the most intriguing group we've had. Guys like Shaq Riddick, Penny, Shipley, Olsen Pierre, Hakeem Valles, Chris Hubert, Momah all have legitimate NFL potential if they put in the work and are developed properly.
3. Shaq Riddick finally showed some pass rush potential last night.
4. Hakeem Valles is an intriguing athlete. He's only played TE for a couple of years, but he has great size at 6'5" 260 (though that seems very generous), and he ran a 4.63 40 yard dash at the regional combine. That would have been the fastest time for a TE at the Scouting Combine this year. You saw a glimpse of that potential on his 24 yard reception last night.
5. Disappointed in Harlan Miller. I thought he would be a solid pick for us, but you barely even hear the guys name talked about. It's as if he doesn't even exist. In a year where we are in desperate need of CB depth, I wish he would have show up more. It seems clear he was one of the rookies BA called out early in camp for lack of effort.
6. I've been impressed with both Boehm and Toner. I think both have the ability to contribute this year if they're needed. It's so refreshing to have Keim invest so many resources in the offensive line.
7. Watford has turned into an extremely valuable piece for us. I wish we would have been able to see him play center a little bit. Shipley isn't awful, but it would be nice to see Watford or Boehm take hold of that position at some point. I think Shipley is average at best.
8. Lamar Louis made two of my favorite plays of the game. That tackle on kickoff where he blew up the blocker and tackled the returner at the 14 was exceptional. I'll be shocked if he doesn't make the roster at this point.
9. First let me be clear. I love, love. love BA. He is exactly what this franchise needed in every way. However, if he has a weakness I think it's that he's sometimes loyal to a fault. Granted he knows much, much more than I do, but from my narrow viewpoint his loyalty to Drew Stanton and Amos Jones both stand out to me. With the exception of a couple of games, Drew Stanton has never looked like an NFL QB. Barkley has been very inconsistent, but I thought he played really well last night. If we needed a backup QB for any length of time, I would trust Barkley more so than I would Stanton. As far as Amos Jones is concerned, we have consistently had poor coverage on special teams his entire time here. Why is that?

 

[MadCardDisease]

Great stuff from Mitch

Couple random notes:

1. Disappointed that Kareem Martin got hurt. I hope it's a minor injury. I thought he was playing by far his best football since he'd been drafted.

BA said it was a MCL sprain and he will only be out for about 3 weeks hopefully.

 

[Mitch]

Great stuff from Mitch

Couple random notes:

1. Disappointed that Kareem Martin got hurt. I hope it's a minor injury. I thought he was playing by far his best football since he'd been drafted.
2. I obviously don't know who will all be on the practice squad, but if we don't have a number of players claimed by other teams I think it will be the most intriguing group we've had. Guys like Shaq Riddick, Penny, Shipley, Olsen Pierre, Hakeem Valles, Chris Hubert, Momah all have legitimate NFL potential if they put in the work and are developed properly.
3. Shaq Riddick finally showed some pass rush potential last night.
4. Hakeem Valles is an intriguing athlete. He's only played TE for a couple of years, but he has great size at 6'5" 260 (though that seems very generous), and he ran a 4.63 40 yard dash at the regional combine. That would have been the fastest time for a TE at the Scouting Combine this year. You saw a glimpse of that potential on his 24 yard reception last night.
5. Disappointed in Harlan Miller. I thought he would be a solid pick for us, but you barely even hear the guys name talked about. It's as if he doesn't even exist. In a year where we are in desperate need of CB depth, I wish he would have show up more. It seems clear he was one of the rookies BA called out early in camp for lack of effort.
6. I've been impressed with both Boehm and Toner. I think both have the ability to contribute this year if they're needed. It's so refreshing to have Keim invest so many resources in the offensive line.
7. Watford has turned into an extremely valuable piece for us. I wish we would have been able to see him play center a little bit. Shipley isn't awful, but it would be nice to see Watford or Boehm take hold of that position at some point. I think Shipley is average at best.
8. Lamar Louis made two of my favorite plays of the game. That tackle on kickoff where he blew up the blocker and tackled the returner at the 14 was exceptional. I'll be shocked if he doesn't make the roster at this point.
9. First let me be clear. I love, love. love BA. He is exactly what this franchise needed in every way. However, if he has a weakness I think it's that he's sometimes loyal to a fault. Granted he knows much, much more than I do, but from my narrow viewpoint his loyalty to Drew Stanton and Amos Jones both stand out to me. With the exception of a couple of games, Drew Stanton has never looked like an NFL QB. Barkley has been very inconsistent, but I thought he played really well last night. If we needed a backup QB for any length of time, I would trust Barkley more so than I would Stanton. As far as Amos Jones is concerned, we have consistently had poor coverage on special teams his entire time here. Why is that?

Excellent post, binkar!

I agree with all of your observations, especially the ones about BA. I too love the guy...and none of us are behind the scenes knowing what he sees day and day out, but fans like us get to see the product on the field, which is why it is absolutely mystifying to me that having suffered through times when Ryan Lindley was our only option that a young QB finally has a very good game and plays with good tempo and poise---but, he and the 7th round pick Keim gave up to
get him are going to be thrown into the trash heap, while the backup has stunk the last two pre-seasons but is given every excuse in the world, like "oh it's just that his mechanics are off."

Furthermore---I have been trying to think of the last time I saw a Cardinals' RB run over and through people the way E. Penny did last night---and get up licking his chops for more. And yet---it looks like he too will be discarded.

I am sick and tired of always hearing the "well, he did it against scrubs" caveat.

To me it has nothing to do with who he was playing against---it was HOW he was doing it, by hitting the holes hard, lowering his shoulder and plowing his way forward.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Furthermore---I have been trying to think of the last time I saw a Cardinals' RB run over and through people the way E. Penny did last night---and get up licking his chops for more. And yet---it looks like he too will be discarded.

I am sick and tired of always hearing the "well, he did it against scrubs" caveat.

To me it has nothing to do with who he was playing against---it was HOW he was doing it, by hitting the holes hard, lowering his shoulder and plowing his way forward.

I liked how Penny was running last night but he did do it against scrubs who were getting destroyed by our backup OL. That doesn't raise a red flag and make you say hey wait a second, this may be a mirage? Where was this Penny kid when we played the Raiders and Chargers?

 

[cardpa]

Excellent post, binkar!

I agree with all of your observations, especially the ones about BA. I too love the guy...and none of us are behind the scenes knowing what he sees day and day out, but fans like us get to see the product on the field, which is why it is absolutely mystifying to me that having suffered through times when Ryan Lindley was our only option that a young QB finally has a very good game and plays with good tempo and poise---but, he and the 7th round pick Keim gave up to
get him are going to be thrown into the trash heap, while the backup has stunk the last two pre-seasons but is given every excuse in the world, like "oh it's just that his mechanics are off."

Furthermore---I have been trying to think of the last time I saw a Cardinals' RB run over and through people the way E. Penny did last night---and get up licking his chops for more. And yet---it looks like he too will be discarded.

I am sick and tired of always hearing the "well, he did it against scrubs" caveat.

To me it has nothing to do with who he was playing against---it was HOW he was doing it, by hitting the holes hard, lowering his shoulder and plowing his way forward.

Penny showed his worth last night. It will be hard to discard him unless they try to sneak him onto the PS which I suspect will fail after the performance he put on last night. I think Barkley played his way onto the roster last night. I believe BA was running an experiment with all the 2 TE sets and going heavy with the run game. I think he wanted to see how Barkley would manage the game and how well he would play using a run heavy offense. There is no doubt the team can run the ball. If you can give Barkley a efficient running game he is more than capable of moving this offense and putting points on the board. It doesn't matter if it was against scrubs as most would say because you still have to execute the offense and put the ball in places where your WRs can catch it and Barkley did just that. I honestly think BA ran an offense last night that would cater to Barkley's strengths and he wanted to see how well it would work if Palmer did go down. I think it worked out very well. Barkley can't run the Palmer offense however he proved he can run an offense that can score and chew up tremendous amounts of time off the clock keeping the defense fresh and wearing down the other team's defense. I hope BA is being honest with himself and is considering cutting ties with Stanton and elevating Barkley to #2. I don't think you can keep Stanton and demote him.

 

[Mitch]

I liked how Penny was running last night but he did do it against scrubs who were getting destroyed by our backup OL. That doesn't raise a red flag and make you say hey wait a second, this may be a mirage? Where was this Penny kid when we played the Raiders and Chargers?

I thought he looked good in the other games. Didn't you?

What was clear to me last night is that he plays super hard and tough. We need more guys on this team who play super hard and tough.

 

[MadCardDisease]

I thought he looked good in the other games. Didn't you?

What was clear to me last night is that he plays super hard and tough. We need more guys on this team who play super hard and tough.

He looked OK in the other games. Rushing for 2.8 yards per carry isn't exactly something to write home about. There are plenty of players who give it their all and play hard trying to make this team. However there are only so many spots.

If Penny was a force on special teams then he might have a chance. However I haven't seen anything from him on special teams so that is the dagger in the heart as far as I see it. There is no way the Cardinals keep 5 RBs with the depth that they have at other positions.

 

[nashman]

I hope we keep Barkley he looks much more accurate and seems to already have a better grasp of the offense than Stanton in a much shorter period of time. Barkley could develop into a starter and I don't see that ever EVER happening with Stanton!

 

[Mitch]

Per reports, WR Brittan Golden has been released.

 

[juza76]

I can see them with 4 tigh-end's
They want keep in the roster the lenght of moamah

 

[Mitch]

I can see them with 4 tigh-end's
They want keep in the roster the lenght of moamah

Or---are they keeping WR Chris Hubert? Both Smoke and Fire are battling through injuries.

 

[juza76]

Or---are they keeping WR Chris Hubert? Both Smoke and Fire are battling through injuries.

Maybe dexter mcluxter?

 

[Mitch]

Maybe dexter mcluxter?

If Dexter McCluster still has game, he would be a superb addition. But, we already have a younger version of him in Andre Ellington.

 

[GuernseyCard]

Red Bryant cut per twitter.

 

[Mitch]

Man---I was so wrong about Red Bryant. Kudos to everyone else who predicted this.

 

[juza76]

If Dexter McCluster still has game, he would be a superb addition. But, we already have a younger version of him in Andre Ellington.

Dexter was a solid punt and kick returner
Ellington didnt have the opportunity yet, but he looks like he is a bit scared to get tackled by special teams

 

[WisconsinCard]

Man---I was so wrong about Red Bryant. Kudos to everyone else who predicted this.

I hope that doesn't strike a blow to our stellar run D.