Your Arizona Cardinals now hold the 16th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

One would think.

However the definitive difference between an amateur and a professional has nothing to do with ability. It is simply that a professional gets paid to do it while an amateur does not.

Well the professional gets paid to, and has the time and resources to, conduct research into the players. And is also afforded access we do not possess. So the difference isn’t just that one gets paid and the other does not. In addition, the professional has had to convince an owner that their opinion has value. Whereas no one has vetted slan’s knowledge and opinion. He hasn’t had to prove his worth.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I get that. Every team misses more picks ( stars) that they hit. Rams draft was epic. It was also better than 31 other teams. Also players success over the years are tied to the team, situation, organization and opportunity.
Can you clearly say what kind of year MHJ would have had if was drafted by the Chiefs or Rams or Lions? Odds are it would have been better and we’d be screaming why didn’t we pick him, but we will never know. Would PJ benefited by playing next to an all pro guard?

I’m not questioning that we have to draft better but I will argue it’s a little too early for a final grade. We’ve turned over 85% of the roster in 2 years and went from 4 wins to 8 wins.

It appears this team is trending upward even with the early grade on the “ bums” we’ve drafted.

As has been argued ad nauseum, no one is arguing these grades are final. I’d be surprised if even sanders wouldn’t admit these grades are incomplete. But what we can do is judge the quality based on the evidence in possession today. They are, of course, open to interpretation and evolution as facts change. As with all analysis. I don’t think anyone is projecting grades into the future. Just grading what’s been seen to date. And that’s a reasonable course of action.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Completely agree. And what I have been preaching. Monti should be questioned for his draft. That is his job. But the baseline should be based on this (providing 3 starters) and not compared to an outlier draft like the Rams.

Criticizing Monti for not being on par with the 2024 Rams draft would be like praising him because he is doing better than Keim's 2021 draft, that produced a solid starting 2 down OLB and the 6th OLB on the Depth Chart. Both are equally unfair.

I think judging based on starters is faulty reasoning. If you’re the worst team in the league but your entire team consists of drafted starters your drafts were only good enough to be yhe worst team. The fact they start is immaterial. Bad is bad. Just because your team couldn’t identify and acquire bettter talent than your draftees doesn’t make your draftees good. The only valid comparison is to other players league-wide, not just the subset of your team roster.

Now the Cardinals are not the worst team in the league. I used that as an extreme example to make my point blatantly obvious.

 

[BACH]

I think judging based on starters is faulty reasoning. If you’re the worst team in the league but your entire team consists of drafted starters your drafts were only good enough to be yhe worst team. The fact they start is immaterial. Bad is bad. Just because your team couldn’t identify and acquire bettter talent than your draftees doesn’t make your draftees good. The only valid comparison is to other players league-wide, not just the subset of your team roster.

Now the Cardinals are not the worst team in the league. I used that as an extreme example to make my point blatantly obvious.

Sure! Fair. Implied that it has to be quality starters. Starters where there are no questions about the starting status and not just starters because the team is horrible. Not necessary pro-bowlers, but quality play. Your Froholdt, Wilson x2, Thompson, White of the world