The Arizona Cardinals Can Cement Elite Status With a Good Draft

The Arizona Cardinals are a good, or even great, team. This draft could help them cement their status as on of the better teams in the NFL.

The Arizona Cardinals are entering a critical three-day stretch, maybe the most critical period of the offseason.

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After a solid free agency, the Cardinals should go into Thursday’s draft feeling good about where they stand. They’re a good bet to make the playoffs, and if you talk to some people, they have what it takes to win the Super Bowl. The injuries that destroyed what looked like a great run last season are mostly healed. The Cardinals time is now.

Apparently the team feels that way. This season, they’ve made several cost cutting moves to open cap space. They released veterans Lyle Sendlein and Darnell Dockett. They also restructured the contracts of Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald.

They’ve used this money to add depth at several defensive positions. They also used a good portion to sign guard Mike Iupati, who will help the Cardinals with interior blocking, one of their biggest flaws last season. This healthy, upgrade team is certainly better than the one last season.

The team isn’t flawless though. They still need a kick returner, power back, edge rusher, and fast cornerback. These aren’t absolute necessities, but adding in these areas would fix the last remained holes.

This is why the draft these next few days is big. By filling these last few gaps effectively, the Cardinals can further cement their status as an elite NFL team. Various mock drafts for our site and elsewhere present different ideas about how Arizona can nail the draft. The important point is that the team has a lot to gain from doing so, however they end up drafting.

That’s not to say the draft is make-or-break for the Cards. They aren’t drafting the savior of the franchise. Part of the reason is because that’s not how they operate as a team. Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic pointed out that”Keim’s ultimate plan is to build the roster via the draft and use free agency as the mortar to fill small cracks.”

The Cardinals’ 2015 draft is basically a luxury. Bruce Arians says “we could take the team now and go play.” If they can do well in this draft, they can add the necessary depth needed to fully prime themselves for a title run.

Of course, the only way to know whether they nailed the draft after it is by opinion. Until we see how their decisions and selections play out, we won’t know. Additions in these several areas will be critical, especially if the injury bug hits again.

Arizona has some good young talent as is. Adding more over the next few days would be huge. Cardinals fans should be very glad to have Steve Keim in charge of the next few days.

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