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

[Chris_Sanders]

Obviously from my rants about this last draft I have zero confidence in Monti right now when it comes to drafting.

Where he excels though is maneuvering his draft position. We don't have the capital to move up so I would move back and hopefully get a 1 and a 3.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

On the other hand, other than injury, all of the picks in the top 5 rounds have played quite a bit and contributed to a team that played a very tough schedule, was about the youngest team in the league, and were on the brink of being a playoff team.

This just isn’t reality.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

A franchise LT and WR are pretty good pieces.

Mostly agree though - not hitting at the level the Rams are but then again, most teams are not.

If he’s Humphries level that’s a 20th pick value, not first tackle drafted value.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Absolutely agree on your first point. Foundation has been build for most positions. Depth is there and what is missing is more top-end talent.

Disagree on the second part. Talent and potential for top-end players have been drafted. Majority of us are just too impatient for it to develop.

I have posted this multiple times. Draft picks can turn into stars, above average, average, below average or bust players. Monti and I'm assuming JC has shown through the draft is that they prioritize high-character, high effort players and they prioritize athletic ability higher than most other teams. This has resulted in several pick where the raw talent has a very high ceiling, but where the players are not necessarily ready to be day 1 starters. Based on how well the back-up have played, I would conclude that this team has good coaches and they have the ability to coach up the raw talent.

We have seen 0 busts from the draft classes. We have seen good scheme fits. We have seen flashes of briliance on the field. We have seen horrible play on the field.

Monti should absolutely get fired if the players do not develop, but like his draft profiles or not - basicly all drafted players under Monti are long-term projects more than immediate impact players and we cannot evaluate the Monti's drafts properly until end of next season.

There will be misses among the picks. But so far I have not seen anything to suggest that the developmental trajectory isn't going to be at a good level by year 3, when the light usually turns on for most players.

This is reasonable.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Obviously from my rants about this last draft I have zero confidence in Monti right now when it comes to drafting.

Where he excels though is maneuvering his draft position. We don't have the capital to move up so I would move back and hopefully get a 1 and a 3.

This a weird argument to me. You first state you don’t trust his talent evaluation. But you want him to have more at bats at the cost of picking higher where his alleged shortcomings in talent evaluation would have less negative impact.

 

[kerouac9]

We have seen 0 busts from the draft classes.

Jon Gaines has done almost nothing. Elijah Moore has literally done nothing. Beej has been Zaven Collins as a pass rusher and Dennis Gardeck as a run defender.

There are no busts in year one or two but there are guys on that trajectory.

 

[BACH]

Jon Gaines has done almost nothing. Elijah Moore has literally done nothing. Beej has been Zaven Collins as a pass rusher and Dennis Gardeck as a run defender.

There are no busts in year one or two but there are guys on that trajectory.

I personally do not include injured players that didn't have a history of injuries when drafted. You can agree or disagree, but I did not include BJ and Moore in the analysis that supported my statement.

On Gaines. Has he played? Nope. Injured as a rookie and 22 snaps this season.

Is he a starter? Nope.

But does that mean he is a bust? IMO also nope! He is a low 4th round pick who is backing up the 6th best C in the NFL. What exactly were your expectations?