I touched on a couple of these issues in my last message but will
quickly cover them again for first time lurkers and other people I
hope to draw into this newsgroup for some real discussion.

Levi Brown: Going into the draft he was number three on my list of
offensive lineman behind Wisconsin's Joe Thomas and Central Michigan's
Joe Staley. I came to this conclussion based on the thought from most
scouts that Brown was a weak pass blocker and one of our main concerns
should be keeping our young franchise quarterback healthy. Levi Brown
is also much slower than both Thomas and Staley which is usually a red
flag for me when it comes to OT. I was also disappointed in the fact
that we drafted Brown earlier than where he was projected to go but
according to Michael Smith trading down wasn't an option due to the
fact that the Atlanta Falcons were going to take him with their ninth
pick. I am happy with our draft selection here because it was the only
thing we could do, the phones weren't ringing for a trade, Quinn
wasn't an option, nor was Peterson.

Alan Branch: I love this pick.. I don't mind the fact that we lost out
on our fourth round pick to get Branch even with some saying he would
have dropped to us anyway. He put up incredible numbers, with the RB's
in the West we need a presence in the middle in the worst. Of course I
also loved the Gabe Watson pick last year and of course the
disadvantages of Watson are the same being advertised on Branch..

Buster Davis: Put up great numbers and won numerous awards against
tough competition. With the Cardinals moving to a 3-4 Davis should
emerge into a starting LB. His downfall is his height where he comes
in slightly below 5'10, but that hasn't stopped other lb'ers such as
Zach Thomas. He is a tough hard hitting kid who appears to be the
perfect fit for a Ken Whisenhunt team.

Steve Breaston: Don't know a lot about him but he appears to be the
Wes Welker type player, more of a guy probbaly brought in to handle
kick returns and punt returns which he had success doing in college.
Guys like JJ Arrington and Troy Walters did most of the returning last
season and certainly were a weak spot of our special teams.

Ben Patrick: This is the pick I loved... I have all the confidence in
the world but as reported on ESPN, Ken Wisenhunt is a former TE and
loves using TE's and going with two TE sets. This is going to be a
huge change from the days of Denny Green where our TE's weren't used.
The scouts have raved about this kid and the only knock on him is his
speed. They say he is very athletic, has great hands, has good size,
and can block.. I expect big things from both him and Leonard Pope
over the next few seasons and I certainly look forward to watching Ben
Patrick play.

Was this an exciting draft for Cardinals fan? Not really.. In past
years we got exciting players like Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart,
Antrel Rolle, Leonard Pope was considered to be an exciting tight end
and a steal in the third round, JJ Arrington was another supposed
steal and we got excited to have a "real" RB back in Arizona.. Denny
Green was great at taking the most valuable player on the board and a
lot of fun and good (at the time) picks fell into our hands while he
ran this team.. I even remember being pumped about the Elton Brown
draft pick. This years draft wasn't as exciting, maybe it's because so
many talented draft picks didnt pan out during the Denny Green era,
maybe it's because guys like Alan Branch and Buster Davis sound a lot
like Gabe Watson and Lance Mitchell. I don't know, I think it was a
good draft and we filled holes and I think we scored some real good
talent as I mentioned above. Now it's time to see what Whisenhunt and
Grimm can do with this talent and lets hope they can resurrect the
talent we drafted in the last three years notably Antrel Rolle, Bryant
Johnson, Leonard Pope, et al.

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