With the first week of free agency in the books, we can look at how needs and priorities might have changed for NFL teams. The Arizona Cardinals are now different. As such, mock drafts could change.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar put together a new mock draft and this one has the Arizona Cardinals going with an offensive lineman. Who is it?
Instead of the athletic Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa like ESPN’s Mel Kiper suggests, Farrar projects the Cardinals go with Alabama’s Jedrick Wills.
One imagines that in the back of his mind, Kyler Murray may still want former Sooners teammate CeeDee Lamb in his receiving corps in the Valley of the Sun. But after head coach Kliff Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim were able perform highway robbery on the perennially outmatched Bill O’Brien, bringing DeAndre Hopkins aboard to catch passes with Larry Fitzgerald, even Murray might agree that the most important thing now for the future of the Cardinals’ offense is an offensive line that will help its quarterback reduce his league-high total of 48 sacks from 2019. Granted, more than enough of those sacks were Murray’s fault as he was figuring things out at the NFL level, but with the addition of Wills, who has the potential to lock down the right tackle position immediately and transition to the blind side over time, that right-handed mobile passing game takes things to a new level — which allows Murray to do the same.
Wills is probably the safest pick the Cardinals could make. He allowed one whole sack last year and laments even the one. He has great technique. He has the size and, while he isn’t the most athletic, he is athletic enough.
He will be a good right tackle.
Is it a better pick than a receiver like Lamb, who could add even more dynamic play to the skill players on offense? That is something to debate.
Wills is a good, solid pick. It isn’t exciting. They will be better because of it.
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Ep. 261
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Ep. 260
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