Arizona Cardinals: Reviewing Last 5 First-Round Draft Picks
By Tyler Olson
Evaluating the Arizona Cardinals’ last five first-round picks to see how they’ve progressed and where the team must improve.
First round picks in the NFL Draft always enter the league facing a ton of pressure, and the Arizona Cardinals are hoping theirs continue to progress. Unfortunately for general manager Steve Keim, he only has two of the last five first-round picks still on the roster that Arizona’s made with one of those not being his own selection. Both Deone Bucannon and DJ Humphries have proven to be solid pieces.
2017 will play huge as the Cardinals look to rebound from a mediocre 7-8-1 season. Keim has one first-round pick (13th overall) to his name and is in position to possibly use that as trade bait if quarterbacks start flying off the board early in the first.
But let’s look back at what Keim and the Cardinals have done early in recent drafts, specifically evaluating Arizona’s last five first-round picks.
2012: Michael Floyd
The Cardinals went from having a solid nucleus at wide receiver after a run to the NFC Championship game in 2015 to the group being one of their biggest question marks heading into 2017. The 13th overall pick in 2012, Michael Floyd spent five seasons in Arizona until a DUI forced Keim’s hand to release him mid-season last year. He battled injuries throughout his tenure but was still a part of Arizona’s passing attack throughout.
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In five years, he caught 242 passes for over 3,700 yards and 23 touchdowns for the Cardinals. While the numbers don’t put him in an elite category, you can’t categorize him as a bust. He had a stellar career at Notre Dame, catching 271 passes for over 3,600 yards and 37 touchdowns.
After his release from Arizona, he signed with the New England Patriots. There he only spent 51 days on New England’s roster, got paid $1.2 million and became a Super Bowl Champion. To the average citizen like you and I, that’s quite the deal. But now his future may be in doubt as he tries to find a team this offseason that wants to give him another shot at not only being a football player, but being a professional.
With Floyd gone, an aging Larry Fitzgerald and a group of receivers that struggle to stay healthy, Keim needs to find a big-bodied playmaker like Floyd to take over.