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DA's pass went that way
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Inside Slant
Dennis Green is not afraid to do it his way, but after a six-win year on the job in the desert, he still has some convincing to do to prove that his way is the right way.
To wit:
—After an opening year in which he made several decisions that at times seemed more impulsive than instinctive or intuitive, Green hired an offensive coordinator — Keith Rowan — who hasn't called a play in 21 seasons, and that was at the USFL level.
"From our time together in Minnesota, I know that Keith has a tremendous grasp of this offensive system and what we expect from it," said Green. "We had some outstanding offensive seasons with the Vikings and Keith has also been involved with some incredible offenses since then, most recently in Kansas City under the legendary Dick Vermeil. I'm confident we can have similar success in Arizona with Keith as offensive coordinator."
But Green had uttered almost those exact same words of praise and confidence when introducing Alex Wood as his offensive coordinator less than a year ago. And Rowan was the line coach at Minnesota.
—Green might have cut off his nose to spite his face when he benched quarterback Josh McCown literally on the eve of a game at Carolina when the team had a modest streak of four wins in five games going, the first sign of momentum in years. Whether that move alone marked the end of the year can be debated, but the evidence is irrefutable that the collapse coincided with it.
Veteran quarterback Shaun Green lost his two starts and was dumped for rookie seventh-round pick John Navarre, who lost his only start and suffered what proved to be a season-ending fractured finger on his throwing hand.
So it was back to McCown by default, and that might not have been such a bad thing. The record shows that a 6-10 team was 6-7 in games that McCown started.
—For reasons best known to Green, he cut starting center Pete Kendall literally on the eve of training camp when there wasn't an experienced alternative on the roster.
The record shows that Kendall went to the New York Jets and played a vital role in helping running back Curtis Martin to another 1,000-yard season and the Jets to the second round of the playoffs this week as a starting guard.
Meanwhile, Cardinals rookie center Alex Stepanovich was thrown to the wolves as the starter.
So now it's Rowan, who has not coached quarterbacks. Mike Kruczek will stay on to do that.
Now, the Cardinals need to find a quarterback for Kruczek to coach, evidently. McCown becomes a restricted free agent. While Green couldn't gush enough a year ago about McCown's athleticism and potential, the coach might now be ready to show him the door.
The Cardinals need to find a running back. It might be Marcel Shipp, who led the team in rushing in 2002 and 2003 before suffering a season-ending leg fracture during training camp. Who knows how effectively he'll come back from that? Emmitt Smith will be 36 and has played out his contract. The only way he'll return to the Cardinals is if he agrees to accept bargain-basement pay.
The Cardinals need to determine who will be their offensive linemen. Leonard Davis is a massive-bodied player who will be coming off knee surgery. If he does so successfully, he'll be the left tackle. Stepanovich lived to tell about his rookie year, gained valuable experience, and should be back in the middle. Beyond that, all positions are open.
Tight end Freddie Jones never escaped Green's doghouse, is an unrestricted free agent, and is likely gone.
So the only sure things on offense are an excellent young receiving corps of Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson.
In other words, a year after offensive guru Dennis Green took the helm, the offense, and the staff that coaches it, remain in upheaval and disarray.
NOTES, QUOTES
—DE Bertrand Berry was named to start for the NFC in the Pro Bowl. From a 6-10 team, Berry is the only Cardinals player on the Pro Bowl roster this season. But like Pro Bowler Anquan Boldin last season, Berry came to the Cardinals and made an eye-popping difference immediately. Berry led the NFC with 14.5 sacks, threatening Simeon Rice's club record of 16.5, on a team that had been last or nearly last in sacks in the NFL for four years.
Berry was acquired as an unrestricted free agent last offseason, making him one of the team's best pickups during its Arizona era, after the team repeatedly whiffed in free agency and in the draft.
Boldin, a Pro Bowl starter a year ago, came to the team as a second-round draft pick and caught a league rookie record 101 passes in 2003.
Boldin was the only rookie starter in the Pro Bowl last year.
—WR Larry Fitzgerald, the third player chosen in the draft, suffered through a six-win season even though he repeatedly showed why he was so coveted. Now he's off to join Pat and Vanna on the game show's "NFL's Player Week," playing for the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund, in memory of his mother. He and 13 other players are involved in the week that in its first eight years raised more than $2 million for charities.
—For coach Dennis Green, his coaching rotation has been more like the old-time TV game show "Who Do You Trust?"
The day after the season, he fired offensive coordinator Alex Wood and receivers coach Robert Ford less than a year after he'd hired them. Green had demoted offensive line coach Bob Wylie, moved former player Everett Lindsey into that spot, and hired Carl Hargrave as a consultant during the season.
Hargrave will coach tight ends and Lindsey will stay on in 2005 as line coach. In fact, Green absolutely gushes about Lindsey.
"I think Everett is going to be like Mike Tice," Green said. "He is going to be, in my opinion, like Jack Del Rio. I am very proud of those guys that we coached back in those old days. What you like most is that they love the game, were good at the game and they went into coaching. There is no better compliment to a program than guys that played who decided to go into coaching."
Lindsey had better watch out. Green was just as effusive a year ago about QB Josh McCown, who now may be on his way out of town following a roller-coaster season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We have a blueprint in place. I really believe (coach Dennis Green) has the right message for our football team. And it gets back to getting the right players from a talent standpoint, but also making sure we have players with the right attitude. What we're trying to move away from is this being just a job to feeling that this football team can be special. Dennis and I have worked hard to try to define that." — Rod Graves, vice president of operations, on the state of the franchise.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
There are big questions facing the team going into the offseason. It made a questionable call in hiring Keith Rowan as offensive coordinator — although an NFL assistant for two decades, he has not called a play and has not worked with quarterbacks — to replace Alex Wood, who was fired. It could be looking for a quarterback after Josh McCown, soon to be a restricted free agent, seemed to fall out of favor. It likely will need a running back with Emmitt Smith having played out his contract and uncertainty over how Marcel Shipp, the rushing leader in 2002 and 2003, might return from a major leg injury.
On defense, the unit got wonderful mileage out of schemes and trickery, but it needs to find someone who can stop the parade of 100-yard rushers.
—RB Emmitt Smith says he'd like to play somewhere next season at age 36, but signs are growing that the NFL career rushing leader won't be doing it for the Cardinals — unless he's willing to be paid as a backup. Fat chance. It is unlikely he'll be offered a starting job anywhere although he nearly rushed for his 12th 1,000-yard season (937 yards in 267 attempts) on a bad team that often was behind and forced to throw.
—QB Josh McCown still faces an uncertain future. He is to become a restricted free agent and no doubt would draw interest on the market, even if he receives the high tender offer. Coach Dennis Green has sent mixed signals regarding McCown but most recently seems to be saying he's not sold on him. No light was shed in Green's selection of Keith Rowan, who has little experience coaching quarterbacks, as the offensive coordinator. What it probably means is Rowan will be nothing more than Green's lieutenant, with Green essentially serving as offensive coordinator emeritus. In which case McCown might have played his final game for the Cards.
—MLB Ron McKinnon has been a warrior through three coaching regimes, piling up tackles and proving that an undrafted player with heart, even though undersize, can make it in the NFL. But after nine seasons, he might be finished in the desert. Late in the year he rarely was on the field, especially after the Cards found success in their experiment with a 3-4 look.
—DE Calvin Pace, a first-round pick in 2003, could be on his way out. He flopped as a rookie (one sack in 16 starts) and lost the job in 2004 to free agent pickup Bertrand Berry, who made 14.5 sacks and will start in the Pro Bowl. Even more painful to the Cardinals than whiffing on Pace: They traded out of position to draft Terrell Suggs to do it.
—DT Wendell Bryant, a bust almost from the day he was drafted in the first round in 2002, in three seasons has produced only 28 tackles and 1.5 sacks — plus innumerable headaches for the club. The Cardinals are likely to cut their losses.
COACHING CAROUSEL: It is becoming a familiar rhetorical question around the Cardinals regarding coach Dennis Green: "He did WHAT???" Green, after shaking up his hand-picked offensive staff after less than one year, hired Keith Rowan as offensive coordinator.
Rowan has been an NFL assistant for 21 seasons but has not been an offensive coordinator since his USFL days more than two decades ago. Rowan coached the offensive line on Green's staff in Minnesota for three years. He is not known as a QB guru, though.
Rowan succeeds Alex Wood, another longtime crony of Green, who was fired the day after the 6-10 season ended with a win over Tampa Bay.
Green moved tight ends coach Mike Wilson outside to coach one of the league's strongest groups of young receivers in Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson. He succeeds Robert Ford, who was fired along with Wood 24 hours after the finale.
Carl Hargrave, hired as an offensive consultant before the season reached the midpoint, was retained to coach tight ends. Many observers expected Green to make Hargrave the coordinator. He was with Green for eight years in Minnesota.
Green was not happy with the offense from Day 1. Yet he hired Wood and Ford. Perhaps the timing of Green's hiring gave him little time and fewer options when assembling his initial staff, or perhaps he simply whiffed in his assessment of the coaches.
Green came in regarded as an offensive guru, yet that unit was near the bottom of the NFL in every category.
Green had fired offensive line coach Bob Wylie after six games and said that Everett Lindsay, brought on at midseason, will remain the line coach.
FREE-AGENT UPDATE:
—RB Troy Hambrick (UFA. Big-bodied pounder who could figure into an unsettled spot with Emmitt Smith's return in question and uncertainty regarding how Marcel Shipp might return from a leg fracture; likely back).
—CB Renaldo Hill (UFA. Very smart player who has survived on guile but lacks foot speed to run with elite wideouts; excellent guy for depth or nickel packages; likely back).
—TE Freddie Jones (UFA. Still has potential for a few years of high production with excellent physical tools as a receiving tight end, but a poor blocker and it seems a firecracker must be lit under him at times; back only if team finds nothing better).
—MLB Ron McKinnon (UFA. Epitome of the dedicated warrior, but his time might have run out; undersized and aging; likely won't be re-signed, at least not at starter's pay).
—RB Emmitt Smith (UFA. Even at 36 he'd be in demand if he is willing to accept backup role — and backup pay; nearly had a 1,000-yard season on a poor team; will be in league next season only if he doesn't let his pride get in the way).
—G Cameron Spikes (UFA. Has played extensively the last two seasons mainly by default; would be a fine depth player to retain at the right price).
—CB Michael Stone (UFA. Never has lived up to expectations; barely average CB whose attempt to switch to S a couple of years ago never panned out; a likely goner).
—CB Robert Tate (UFA. Called to duty largely because team had nothing else; likely goner).
—DE Kyle Vanden Bosch (UFA. Excellent motor in limited skills package, thwarted early in career by ACL surgery on each knee; excellent guy to re-sign for depth).
—DE Peppi Zellner (UFA. Left-side starter all year after acquisition in late preseason trade, played well in an overachieving defense; likely to be re-signed).
—S Quentin Harris (RFA. Got starting chance in preseason and was so scary team hired another S; still young and worth bringing back for further development).
—DT Ross Kolodziej (RFA. The kind of attitude every team covets, if only in an average package; fine depth player and he won't draw interest anywhere at anything more than that, so likely to return).
—QB Josh McCown (RFA. The biggest question in all of free agency for this team; started 13 games in which team was 6-7 but seemed to fall out of favor with coach Dennis Green; no doubt will draw interest on the market even if he receives the high tender offer from the team).
—WR Nate Poole (RFA. Good enough to be a fourth receiver, but on this roster he's in danger of not returning because he is not a punt returner; will land somewhere, but possibly not back with the Cards).
FEELING A DRAFT: The Cardinals have the eighth pick overall in the first round and the 40th overall in the second in the 2005 draft. From their 2004 draft, their first four picks became starters all season (WR Larry Fitzgerald, OLB Karlos Danby, DT Darnell Dockett, C Alex Stepanovich), so the new regime either got lucky or has a far superior eye for talent than its predecessors. If it strikes it similarly rich with these two picks, it will have a wonderful corps of talented young players who should be the nucleus of a long-awaited turnaround. But how many times have we heard that before with the Cardinals?
They might need a quarterback (Josh McCown is a restricted free agent and apparently now is in disfavor with coach Dennis Green; 2004 seventh-round pick John Navarre probably is not the heir apparent). They might need a running back (Emmitt Smith likely gone, Marcel Shipp questionable coming off major leg injury, nobody else on roster starter quality). They likely will need a middle linebacker (Ron McKinnon aging and an unrestricted free agent; no one on roster ready to step into the job). There always is the need for a cover corner in the NFC West with St. Louis and Seattle firing away. And there are never enough defensive linemen on a team that routinely yielded 100-yard rushing outputs to opposing running backs.
MEDICAL WATCH: LT Leonard Davis, the team's best offensive lineman who finished the season on injured reserve, had arthroscopic surgery on his knee in Phoenix on Jan. 7. That's always an issue with players like Davis who have hulking bodies, but he is expected to be fine in time for offseason camps. ... QB John Navarre, who suffered a fractured finger on his throwing hand in his first and only NFL start, might have offseason surgery. Had he not been injured he likely would have ended the season with a string of four starts and been best positioned to take over the job next season. ... RB Marcel Shipp (leg) had surgery during preseason and is roughly 80 percent into his rehab. He should be ready for training camp. He was the team's rushing leader in 2002 and 2003 and came into 2004 highly touted by Dennis Green before the injury. ... RT L.J. Shelton is coming off knee surgery but is expected to be in the mix to take back his RT spot in 2005. ... DT Kenny King, ticketed to be the starting "under tackle," is recovering nicely from wrist surgery and should come back well, in turn allowing Darnell Dockett to move back outside. ... DE Fred Wakefield is battling a stress fracture in his foot that forced him onto IR but is well regarded by the coaching staff and likely to be a factor for a major spot in the rotation. ... FB James Hodgins had shoulder surgery and will need to come back and prove himself to a staff that didn't seem all that fond of him before the injury; an excellent blocker with a massive body.
Inside Slant
Dennis Green is not afraid to do it his way, but after a six-win year on the job in the desert, he still has some convincing to do to prove that his way is the right way.
To wit:
—After an opening year in which he made several decisions that at times seemed more impulsive than instinctive or intuitive, Green hired an offensive coordinator — Keith Rowan — who hasn't called a play in 21 seasons, and that was at the USFL level.
"From our time together in Minnesota, I know that Keith has a tremendous grasp of this offensive system and what we expect from it," said Green. "We had some outstanding offensive seasons with the Vikings and Keith has also been involved with some incredible offenses since then, most recently in Kansas City under the legendary Dick Vermeil. I'm confident we can have similar success in Arizona with Keith as offensive coordinator."
But Green had uttered almost those exact same words of praise and confidence when introducing Alex Wood as his offensive coordinator less than a year ago. And Rowan was the line coach at Minnesota.
—Green might have cut off his nose to spite his face when he benched quarterback Josh McCown literally on the eve of a game at Carolina when the team had a modest streak of four wins in five games going, the first sign of momentum in years. Whether that move alone marked the end of the year can be debated, but the evidence is irrefutable that the collapse coincided with it.
Veteran quarterback Shaun Green lost his two starts and was dumped for rookie seventh-round pick John Navarre, who lost his only start and suffered what proved to be a season-ending fractured finger on his throwing hand.
So it was back to McCown by default, and that might not have been such a bad thing. The record shows that a 6-10 team was 6-7 in games that McCown started.
—For reasons best known to Green, he cut starting center Pete Kendall literally on the eve of training camp when there wasn't an experienced alternative on the roster.
The record shows that Kendall went to the New York Jets and played a vital role in helping running back Curtis Martin to another 1,000-yard season and the Jets to the second round of the playoffs this week as a starting guard.
Meanwhile, Cardinals rookie center Alex Stepanovich was thrown to the wolves as the starter.
So now it's Rowan, who has not coached quarterbacks. Mike Kruczek will stay on to do that.
Now, the Cardinals need to find a quarterback for Kruczek to coach, evidently. McCown becomes a restricted free agent. While Green couldn't gush enough a year ago about McCown's athleticism and potential, the coach might now be ready to show him the door.
The Cardinals need to find a running back. It might be Marcel Shipp, who led the team in rushing in 2002 and 2003 before suffering a season-ending leg fracture during training camp. Who knows how effectively he'll come back from that? Emmitt Smith will be 36 and has played out his contract. The only way he'll return to the Cardinals is if he agrees to accept bargain-basement pay.
The Cardinals need to determine who will be their offensive linemen. Leonard Davis is a massive-bodied player who will be coming off knee surgery. If he does so successfully, he'll be the left tackle. Stepanovich lived to tell about his rookie year, gained valuable experience, and should be back in the middle. Beyond that, all positions are open.
Tight end Freddie Jones never escaped Green's doghouse, is an unrestricted free agent, and is likely gone.
So the only sure things on offense are an excellent young receiving corps of Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson.
In other words, a year after offensive guru Dennis Green took the helm, the offense, and the staff that coaches it, remain in upheaval and disarray.
NOTES, QUOTES
—DE Bertrand Berry was named to start for the NFC in the Pro Bowl. From a 6-10 team, Berry is the only Cardinals player on the Pro Bowl roster this season. But like Pro Bowler Anquan Boldin last season, Berry came to the Cardinals and made an eye-popping difference immediately. Berry led the NFC with 14.5 sacks, threatening Simeon Rice's club record of 16.5, on a team that had been last or nearly last in sacks in the NFL for four years.
Berry was acquired as an unrestricted free agent last offseason, making him one of the team's best pickups during its Arizona era, after the team repeatedly whiffed in free agency and in the draft.
Boldin, a Pro Bowl starter a year ago, came to the team as a second-round draft pick and caught a league rookie record 101 passes in 2003.
Boldin was the only rookie starter in the Pro Bowl last year.
—WR Larry Fitzgerald, the third player chosen in the draft, suffered through a six-win season even though he repeatedly showed why he was so coveted. Now he's off to join Pat and Vanna on the game show's "NFL's Player Week," playing for the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund, in memory of his mother. He and 13 other players are involved in the week that in its first eight years raised more than $2 million for charities.
—For coach Dennis Green, his coaching rotation has been more like the old-time TV game show "Who Do You Trust?"
The day after the season, he fired offensive coordinator Alex Wood and receivers coach Robert Ford less than a year after he'd hired them. Green had demoted offensive line coach Bob Wylie, moved former player Everett Lindsey into that spot, and hired Carl Hargrave as a consultant during the season.
Hargrave will coach tight ends and Lindsey will stay on in 2005 as line coach. In fact, Green absolutely gushes about Lindsey.
"I think Everett is going to be like Mike Tice," Green said. "He is going to be, in my opinion, like Jack Del Rio. I am very proud of those guys that we coached back in those old days. What you like most is that they love the game, were good at the game and they went into coaching. There is no better compliment to a program than guys that played who decided to go into coaching."
Lindsey had better watch out. Green was just as effusive a year ago about QB Josh McCown, who now may be on his way out of town following a roller-coaster season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We have a blueprint in place. I really believe (coach Dennis Green) has the right message for our football team. And it gets back to getting the right players from a talent standpoint, but also making sure we have players with the right attitude. What we're trying to move away from is this being just a job to feeling that this football team can be special. Dennis and I have worked hard to try to define that." — Rod Graves, vice president of operations, on the state of the franchise.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
There are big questions facing the team going into the offseason. It made a questionable call in hiring Keith Rowan as offensive coordinator — although an NFL assistant for two decades, he has not called a play and has not worked with quarterbacks — to replace Alex Wood, who was fired. It could be looking for a quarterback after Josh McCown, soon to be a restricted free agent, seemed to fall out of favor. It likely will need a running back with Emmitt Smith having played out his contract and uncertainty over how Marcel Shipp, the rushing leader in 2002 and 2003, might return from a major leg injury.
On defense, the unit got wonderful mileage out of schemes and trickery, but it needs to find someone who can stop the parade of 100-yard rushers.
—RB Emmitt Smith says he'd like to play somewhere next season at age 36, but signs are growing that the NFL career rushing leader won't be doing it for the Cardinals — unless he's willing to be paid as a backup. Fat chance. It is unlikely he'll be offered a starting job anywhere although he nearly rushed for his 12th 1,000-yard season (937 yards in 267 attempts) on a bad team that often was behind and forced to throw.
—QB Josh McCown still faces an uncertain future. He is to become a restricted free agent and no doubt would draw interest on the market, even if he receives the high tender offer. Coach Dennis Green has sent mixed signals regarding McCown but most recently seems to be saying he's not sold on him. No light was shed in Green's selection of Keith Rowan, who has little experience coaching quarterbacks, as the offensive coordinator. What it probably means is Rowan will be nothing more than Green's lieutenant, with Green essentially serving as offensive coordinator emeritus. In which case McCown might have played his final game for the Cards.
—MLB Ron McKinnon has been a warrior through three coaching regimes, piling up tackles and proving that an undrafted player with heart, even though undersize, can make it in the NFL. But after nine seasons, he might be finished in the desert. Late in the year he rarely was on the field, especially after the Cards found success in their experiment with a 3-4 look.
—DE Calvin Pace, a first-round pick in 2003, could be on his way out. He flopped as a rookie (one sack in 16 starts) and lost the job in 2004 to free agent pickup Bertrand Berry, who made 14.5 sacks and will start in the Pro Bowl. Even more painful to the Cardinals than whiffing on Pace: They traded out of position to draft Terrell Suggs to do it.
—DT Wendell Bryant, a bust almost from the day he was drafted in the first round in 2002, in three seasons has produced only 28 tackles and 1.5 sacks — plus innumerable headaches for the club. The Cardinals are likely to cut their losses.
COACHING CAROUSEL: It is becoming a familiar rhetorical question around the Cardinals regarding coach Dennis Green: "He did WHAT???" Green, after shaking up his hand-picked offensive staff after less than one year, hired Keith Rowan as offensive coordinator.
Rowan has been an NFL assistant for 21 seasons but has not been an offensive coordinator since his USFL days more than two decades ago. Rowan coached the offensive line on Green's staff in Minnesota for three years. He is not known as a QB guru, though.
Rowan succeeds Alex Wood, another longtime crony of Green, who was fired the day after the 6-10 season ended with a win over Tampa Bay.
Green moved tight ends coach Mike Wilson outside to coach one of the league's strongest groups of young receivers in Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson. He succeeds Robert Ford, who was fired along with Wood 24 hours after the finale.
Carl Hargrave, hired as an offensive consultant before the season reached the midpoint, was retained to coach tight ends. Many observers expected Green to make Hargrave the coordinator. He was with Green for eight years in Minnesota.
Green was not happy with the offense from Day 1. Yet he hired Wood and Ford. Perhaps the timing of Green's hiring gave him little time and fewer options when assembling his initial staff, or perhaps he simply whiffed in his assessment of the coaches.
Green came in regarded as an offensive guru, yet that unit was near the bottom of the NFL in every category.
Green had fired offensive line coach Bob Wylie after six games and said that Everett Lindsay, brought on at midseason, will remain the line coach.
FREE-AGENT UPDATE:
—RB Troy Hambrick (UFA. Big-bodied pounder who could figure into an unsettled spot with Emmitt Smith's return in question and uncertainty regarding how Marcel Shipp might return from a leg fracture; likely back).
—CB Renaldo Hill (UFA. Very smart player who has survived on guile but lacks foot speed to run with elite wideouts; excellent guy for depth or nickel packages; likely back).
—TE Freddie Jones (UFA. Still has potential for a few years of high production with excellent physical tools as a receiving tight end, but a poor blocker and it seems a firecracker must be lit under him at times; back only if team finds nothing better).
—MLB Ron McKinnon (UFA. Epitome of the dedicated warrior, but his time might have run out; undersized and aging; likely won't be re-signed, at least not at starter's pay).
—RB Emmitt Smith (UFA. Even at 36 he'd be in demand if he is willing to accept backup role — and backup pay; nearly had a 1,000-yard season on a poor team; will be in league next season only if he doesn't let his pride get in the way).
—G Cameron Spikes (UFA. Has played extensively the last two seasons mainly by default; would be a fine depth player to retain at the right price).
—CB Michael Stone (UFA. Never has lived up to expectations; barely average CB whose attempt to switch to S a couple of years ago never panned out; a likely goner).
—CB Robert Tate (UFA. Called to duty largely because team had nothing else; likely goner).
—DE Kyle Vanden Bosch (UFA. Excellent motor in limited skills package, thwarted early in career by ACL surgery on each knee; excellent guy to re-sign for depth).
—DE Peppi Zellner (UFA. Left-side starter all year after acquisition in late preseason trade, played well in an overachieving defense; likely to be re-signed).
—S Quentin Harris (RFA. Got starting chance in preseason and was so scary team hired another S; still young and worth bringing back for further development).
—DT Ross Kolodziej (RFA. The kind of attitude every team covets, if only in an average package; fine depth player and he won't draw interest anywhere at anything more than that, so likely to return).
—QB Josh McCown (RFA. The biggest question in all of free agency for this team; started 13 games in which team was 6-7 but seemed to fall out of favor with coach Dennis Green; no doubt will draw interest on the market even if he receives the high tender offer from the team).
—WR Nate Poole (RFA. Good enough to be a fourth receiver, but on this roster he's in danger of not returning because he is not a punt returner; will land somewhere, but possibly not back with the Cards).
FEELING A DRAFT: The Cardinals have the eighth pick overall in the first round and the 40th overall in the second in the 2005 draft. From their 2004 draft, their first four picks became starters all season (WR Larry Fitzgerald, OLB Karlos Danby, DT Darnell Dockett, C Alex Stepanovich), so the new regime either got lucky or has a far superior eye for talent than its predecessors. If it strikes it similarly rich with these two picks, it will have a wonderful corps of talented young players who should be the nucleus of a long-awaited turnaround. But how many times have we heard that before with the Cardinals?
They might need a quarterback (Josh McCown is a restricted free agent and apparently now is in disfavor with coach Dennis Green; 2004 seventh-round pick John Navarre probably is not the heir apparent). They might need a running back (Emmitt Smith likely gone, Marcel Shipp questionable coming off major leg injury, nobody else on roster starter quality). They likely will need a middle linebacker (Ron McKinnon aging and an unrestricted free agent; no one on roster ready to step into the job). There always is the need for a cover corner in the NFC West with St. Louis and Seattle firing away. And there are never enough defensive linemen on a team that routinely yielded 100-yard rushing outputs to opposing running backs.
MEDICAL WATCH: LT Leonard Davis, the team's best offensive lineman who finished the season on injured reserve, had arthroscopic surgery on his knee in Phoenix on Jan. 7. That's always an issue with players like Davis who have hulking bodies, but he is expected to be fine in time for offseason camps. ... QB John Navarre, who suffered a fractured finger on his throwing hand in his first and only NFL start, might have offseason surgery. Had he not been injured he likely would have ended the season with a string of four starts and been best positioned to take over the job next season. ... RB Marcel Shipp (leg) had surgery during preseason and is roughly 80 percent into his rehab. He should be ready for training camp. He was the team's rushing leader in 2002 and 2003 and came into 2004 highly touted by Dennis Green before the injury. ... RT L.J. Shelton is coming off knee surgery but is expected to be in the mix to take back his RT spot in 2005. ... DT Kenny King, ticketed to be the starting "under tackle," is recovering nicely from wrist surgery and should come back well, in turn allowing Darnell Dockett to move back outside. ... DE Fred Wakefield is battling a stress fracture in his foot that forced him onto IR but is well regarded by the coaching staff and likely to be a factor for a major spot in the rotation. ... FB James Hodgins had shoulder surgery and will need to come back and prove himself to a staff that didn't seem all that fond of him before the injury; an excellent blocker with a massive body.
