The "could have" Cardinals Team: 1st Round Picks 1988-Present

[RugbyMuffin]

This is all Mitch's fault. Remember that when you get nice and angry. These are players that could have been chosen by the Cardinals. I limited myself to three spots after the Cardinals pick of that year to choose from.

*No 1st round pick: 1990, 1992, 1995 (what a year not to have a 1st rounder, ),

** Player was, in fact, chosen by the Cardinals in real life.

QB: Daunte Culpepper, 1999
Joe Flacco, 2008

RB: Garrison Heast, 1993**
Adrian Peterson, 2007

WR: Larry Fitzgerald, 2004

WR:

WR:

TE: Keith Jackon, 1988

OT: Jonathan Ogden, 1996 (seriously, Simeon Rice over him?)

OG: Chris Naeole, 1997

OC:

OG: Leonard Davis, 2002**

OT:



DE: Wayne Martin, 1989

NT: Haloti Ngata, 2006
Dan Williams, 2010**

DE: Eric Swann, 1991**
Justin Smith, 2001

OLB: Terrell Suggs, 2003

ILB: Brian Urlacher, 2000

ILB: Jamir Miller, 1994**

OLB: DeMarcus Ware, 2005

CB: Charles Woodson, 1998

CB: Chris McAlister, 1999
Patick Peterson, 2011**

FS: Louis Delmas, 2009

SS:


Notes:

1998 - Sixth Round: We chose Zach Waltz with Matt Birk, C still on the board!

0000 - The Baltimore Ravens have made a living picking after us.

0000 - As much flack as the Raiders get for drafting, we are just as bad, IMO.

0000 - I noticed that I liked the picks that the Cardinals have selected over the last two years.

 

[overseascardfan]

The "should have been draft picks" are a sad reminder of how inept our scouting department was/is. However, some of the picks we made were applauded at the time (ie Andre Wadsworth), and other picks of our had better careers after leaving ARZ (Hearst & Thomas Jones). Had management had the gift of forsight then things might have been different.

I mention might because we had Bob Ferguson as GM and that guy probably still would have made the same picks even if he knew how careers would shape out.

 

[HeavyB3]

I seriously hate threads like this. It's like getting the lottery numbers and wishing you could go back in time and pick those numbers.

 

[Duckjake]

The Cards could also have taken Willie Roaf in '93 instead of Garrison Hearst and grabbed Robert Smith instead of Ernie Dye if they wanted a RB.

 

[Phrazbit]

As much as I am disappointed by the Cards draft failings you could make a list like this for every team in the league.

 

[Duckjake]

As much as I am disappointed by the Cards draft failings you could make a list like this for every team in the league.

Not one as extensive as Arizona's. I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find so many former first round picks who left immediately after their rookie contract and did better elsewhere.

Why couldn't we have been like the Colts:

'96 Marvin Harrison
'97 Tarik Glenn
'98 Peyton Manning
'99 Edgerrin James
'00 Rob Morris
'01 Reggie Wayne
'02 Dwight Freeney
'03 Dallas Clark

If the Cards had a stretch of hits like that I doubt they'd have been 5-11 every year. And we'd be getting ready to have Andrew Luck as our QB for the next 10 years.

 

[Phrazbit]

Not one as extensive as Arizona's. I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find so many former first round picks who left immediately after their rookie contract and did better elsewhere.

Why couldn't we have been like the Colts:

'96 Marvin Harrison
'97 Tarik Glenn
'98 Peyton Manning
'99 Edgerrin James
'00 Rob Morris
'01 Reggie Wayne
'02 Dwight Freeney
'03 Dallas Clark

If the Cards had a stretch of hits like that I doubt they'd have been 5-11 every year. And we'd be getting ready to have Andrew Luck as our QB for the next 10 years.

The Colts had a nice run for a while but they might be the worst drafting team of the most recent 5 years.

Check out their draft history from 2007 to now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Colts_draft_history#2007_Draft

Yikes...

Even going back a bit farther they have only gotten 3 real quality players from 2004-2006.

 

[Duckjake]

The Colts had a nice run for a while but they might be the worst drafting team of the most recent 5 years.

Check out their draft history from 2007 to now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Colts_draft_history#2007_Draft

Yikes...

Even going back a bit farther they have only gotten 3 real quality players from 2004-2006.

When you hit that many HRs in earlier drafts it is much harder for rookies to make an impact plus you are drafting in the bottom 5 every year.

Regardless you can't make a list like Rugby's for the Colts or the Steelers either. And that is why they have won consistently for the last decade while the teams you could do it for have not.

 

[NJCardFan]

As I said in another thread, the Cards have made a science out of bad drafting. So much so that it's hard to believe that it's all by accident.