The Arizona Cardinals could go a number of different directions in the NFL draft with their first-round. They have the eighth overall pick and could go with a defensive player, a receiver or an offensive lineman.
Staying with that pick, there has pretty much been no other scenario.
One direction appears to be the most likely, according to NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah. While the Cardinals could take a top receiver like Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb and really fill that room with talent, he believes Arizona will go with an offensive lineman.
“I don’t think they’ve been able to run the offense the way they want to with Coach Kingsbury because they haven’t been able to protect,” he said in a conference call with reporters this week. “Getting a right tackle to come in there opposite of D.J. Humphries, I think that would allow them to get more guys out into the route and all of a sudden now they’ve got a stacked receiver room, allow you to get more of those guys on the field and get them out on the route. So that makes a lot of sense to me.”
The Cardinals drafted three talented receivers a year ago. They have Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk. They acquired DeAndre Hopkins via trade. Jeremiah believes that room is already filled with talent.
However, Jeremiah sees one wild card in the draft for Arizona in the first round.
“If Isaiah Simmons for some reason falls, all bets are off,” he said. “I don’t know that they would pass on him if somehow he was there, if the Panthers passed on him at 7. I’m beginning to think that that slide would end with the Cardinals.”
Simmons would be an intriguing addition to the Cardinals defense. They don’t really have any starting positions open but because he is so versatile, that might work even better, as he could play a variety of roles and positions in different packages, just as he did in college at Clemson, where he played off the edge, as an off-the-ball linebacker, in the slot, as a border defender and in deep coverage.
It feels like a tackle is the direction they will go, based on their pick and the talent there, but Simmons would be a fun player to mix things up with defensively.
[vertical-gallery id=435886]
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. 264
[protected-iframe id=”b8298580b0556a34b31c8547e1eb9674-112738498-106269283″ info=”https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/25551206/download.mp3″ ]
Ep. 263
[protected-iframe id=”dca5b47e417710c1f0ab60fb92d377da-112738498-106269283″ info=”https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/25001898/download.mp3″ ]