2011 NFL Draft: The main one Player the Arizona Cardinals Must Steer clear of

Any passive fan of the NFL understands Arizona's most significant weakness. They rode the arm of Kurt Warner to their second and third post-season appearances ever since they were the "Arizona" or "Phoenix" Cardinals. Without Warner, they looked pedestrian once yet again, not able to mount a rushing or passing attack. Their defense also seemed to feed off the ineptness, leading these phones the fifth choose within the 2011 NFL draft.

The requirement to bring in an NFL-caliber beginning QB is quite clear for the Cardinals, and several mock drafts have slated Blaine Gabbert for them with the fifth general pick. These selections ignore the glaring needs in the secondary that may be filled with all the likes of Patrick Peterson, or pass rush issues that Von Miller could fill. Don't anticipate the Cardinals to do exactly the same...and only partly simply because Bill Bidwill won't want to component together with the salary required to sign a QB taken in the very best five with the NFL draft.

There's two justifiable, non-salary good reasons the Cardinals have to avoid Gabbert in this draft. Very first, they can much better address other requirements in round 1 than round two (and, conversely, they can grab a solid signal caller in round two). Taking a cog for their secondary or front seven can make the entire unit significantly greater, his or her lack of a pass rush strained their DBs, and their DBs did not extend several plays to give their pass rush a few extra opportunities. Round a couple of the draft will have a QB that far better suits their needs, be it an unlikely be seduced by Jake Locker, or Ryan Mallett, Colin Kaepernick, Chrstian Ponder, etc...but the objective right here is not to project who grabs Ken Whisenhunt's consideration.

The 2nd, and more crucial, explanation the Cardinals have to stay away from Gabbert is Gabbert himself. He just doesn't fit the Arizona offense. Gabbert were built with a propensity for throwing short passes and checking right down to RBs (remind Cardinal fans of everyone). This choice will send Larry Fitzgerald on the run, and I don't mean a "Go" route. Where to start with Gabbert could be the dropoff in his numbers final season. I won't bunch up this article with all of the data, but you will find the numbers within the link...and they are considerable.

What is much more important is the drop from Chase Daniels' efficiency. Daniels ought to numbers in all 3 of his seasons than Gabbert managed either year. Daniels' low TD figure was 28 as a sophomore, and he threw 39 his senior year. Gabbert had 24 as sophomore, and just 16 as a junior. These figures are hardly impressive for any high-powered spread offense. So why all of the fuss? Just for entertaining, I charted passes in some games exactly where I had access to all of his offensive snaps. Against Illinois, who was bereft of DBs in the time, he had what looked like wonderful accuracy, hitting 34 of 48 passes. Two of the 14 incomplete passes were dropped, along with a third was catch-able, but not thrown nicely. Looks just like a great day, appropriate?

However when reviewing the game the stats are mostly fluff. 15 from the completions were either behind the line of scrimmage or inside five yards. Another 15 were amongst five and 10 yards down-field. That's 30 of 34 completions being short-range throws. This kind of distribution may fly in certain west coast offenses, exactly where accuracy and a rapid release are important, but is not what Arizona needs to obtain with their high-profile WRs.Additional into the passing stats, six passes of below 10 yards were incomplete and accounted for each with the drops. He completed four of 5 passes amongst ten and 20 yards to spread out receivers, but missed on all five that landed a lot more than twenty yards beyond the line.