Arizona Cardinals need to avoid first-round reach
By Jim Koch
Selecting Lamar Jackson early on in the upcoming draft would be a mistake that the Arizona Cardinals can’t afford to make
The Arizona Cardinals desperately need to get this one right. No one would argue with the notion that the organization needs to find a franchise quarterback to lead them into the future. Reaching for that signal-caller, however, could potentially be a monumental mistake.
Louisville’s Lamar Jackson has been linked to the Cardinals in quite a few mock drafts over the past few weeks. Quarterback-needy squads tend to overvalue even the most mediocre candidates who play the position. NFL franchises have a deep need to find the next Tom Brady, and the pursuit of such a dynamic type of player has a tendency to cloud their judgement.
There are various signs pointing to Jackson fitting that overvalued criteria. Sure, his athleticism is off the charts. Jackson’s 57 touchdown passes and 3,172 total rushing yards during the last two campaigns are certainly impressive statistics.
However, the red flags associated with Jackson aren’t just red, they’re crimson. The true junior completed just 57% of his throws in college. No college kid who has had that low of a completion percentage in the past 12 years has gone on to have success at the pro level.
Besides the problems with his accuracy, Jackson’s mechanics are also embarrassingly bad. His score of just 13 in the Wonderlic test is also troublesome. “There’s no getting around it, the question with him (Jackson) is intelligence”, an anonymous scout told NFL Draft Scout’s Rob Rang.
Despite the negatives, ex-Cards head coach Bruce Arians recently gave Jackson his full endorsement. But that may not necessarily be a good thing. Arians also liked Logan Thomas back in 2014, a quarterback drafted by Arizona who flopped badly, and is now a tight end with the Buffalo Bills.
The Cardinals were able to weather the Thomas mistake, mainly because the Virginia Tech Hokie wasn’t picked until the fourth round. Using an extremely valuable first round pick on a risky project like Jackson could have disastrous results. And that would be a blunder that Keim and the Cards may not recover so quickly from.