Arizona Cardinals grab a second defensive tackle in fourth

Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim goes out and gets depth for the defensive line

Well, in 2020 the Arizona Cardinals will have no one to blame but themselves if the defensive line fails.  Cardinals general manager Steve Keim took two defensive tackles in the fourth round of the draft.

After taking Leki Fotu with his first fourth round selection, he selected LSU’s Rashard Lawrence with the second fourth rounder.  Is it a risk taking two defensive tackles in the same round of a draft where you only have six overall selections?

Right now on paper the selections look good.  Now it’s time to see what Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph can do with them.

As for Lawrence, his 2019 numbers as a senior were not as good as his 2018 numbers when he was a junior.  In 2019, he had 28 tackles, 6 of them for a loss.  He had 2.5 sacks.

In 2018 though when he played more at defensive end, he had 54 tackles, 10 of them for loss, with 4 sacks.  He come’s from national champion LSU though, so how bad can the pick really be?

The question is how good can Lawrence be?  For now, Keim gets the benefit of the doubt because he’s hit a home run so far in this draft.

At least Keim hasn’t gone off the trail with a small school pick yet.  At this point though, we have to hope he’s done drafting on the defensive line.  Maybe he can bring some more defensive linemen in when it comes time to sign some undrafted free agents?

CBS Sports had Lawrence rated ahead of Fotu though as the 12th best defensive lineman and 153rd best overall.  ESPN had him at 9/135.  So if you’re going by that, Keim actually improved over the first pick of the round.

The Cardinals have just two more picks left in the draft.  The next selection comes in the sixth round.