It’s a conundrum that will divide many Cardinals fans for the next four months: should the Cardinals address their need at wide receiver early in the draft or wait until Day 2 again?
It would seem to be one of the most obvious needs on the team, especially if Larry Fitzgerald does hang up his cleats rather than return (or even if he does return). Kyler Murray needs another weapon to help this Kliff Kingsbury lead offense to take the next step.
It’s truly remarkable the step they’ve already taken, from clearly the worst offense in the league to being, for the most part, in the middle of the pack in many categories. What’s truly amazing is that outside of Kyler Murray, there were no large additions to the Cardinals offense.
This leads to the topic at hand – do the Cardinals address the wide receiver position, which is already being lauded as being very deep, on Day 1 or Day 2?
The obvious choice would be Day 1. In a class that is deep, there are a few that stand out above the rest; namely, receivers like Jerry Jeudy at Alabama and Murray’s ex-college teammate CeeDee Lamb at Oklahoma.
However, stats seem to indicate that receivers drafted in the second round tend to perform better. Take this year’s draft for example:
Round 1:
Marquise Brown: 46 receptions for 584 yards
N’Keal Harry: 12 receptions for 105 yards
Round 2:
Deebo Samuel: 57 receptions for 802 yards
A.J. Brown: 60 receptions for 1081 yards
DK Metcalf: 58 receptions for 900 yards
The 2018 draft is similar. D.J. Moore and Calvin Ridley have been fine players, but gems in the second round included the Cardinals own Christian Kirk, Courtland Sutton, James Washington and D.J. Chark.
Do the Cardinals need a wide receiver than can separate consistently? Yes. Do they need to give Murray a go to receiver? Absolutely.
Now, in no way will the above statistics influence the Cardinals decision in Round 1. But given Murray’s success without much around him, there is a case to be made to add a premiere player elsewhere and wait until Day 2 to add a weapon.
In a draft like the upcoming one, however, it might be awfully tempting to wait until day two to take someone like the hometown stud Brandon Aiyuk from Arizona State, or the clutch Devonta Smith from Alabama or maybe the solid if not spectacular Justin Jefferson from LSU, some of whom may fall to the top of round two.
There’s a few months to go, but it’s a fun conversation to have.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.
Ep. 254
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Ep. 253:
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