So far, Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort has given fans little reason to get excited regarding his free agent haul over the past month.
A lot of cap space, but a lot of no-name free agents, right? Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort has been blander than bland, signing nothing but cast-offs and young backups fit for an NFL expansion team.
But when you look closer, Ossenfort is making all the right moves. While it doesn’t exactly look good, he’s basically looking to do nothing more than to use free agency to build a workable foundation for a decimated roster, before rebuilding this team through the NFL Draft.
And it’s a much-needed change from what fans grew accustomed to under former general manager Steve Keim, where free agency and trades made up the most prominent transactions while the draft was reserved for glamor, or boom-or-bust talent. And in hindsight, it’s safe to say Keim had far more misses than hits.
Arizona Cardinals general manager is building the team in a better way
While we don’t know if Ossenfort is any better at drafting than his predecessor, we do know that his way of conducting roster transactions is a far cry from Keim’s. Instead of stringing together players through free agency and “blockbuster” trades, the latter of which being notorious for depleting draft stock, Ossenfort is instilling a system of long-term success, and drafting the correct talent is the recipe for such success.
It may not look like the case this season, given the fact he’s basically signed cheap free agents who would be backups or were backups on most NFL teams, sans a few outliers. But roughly three years down the road, if Ossenfort gets it right with the NFL Draft, there will be a lot of happy Cardinals fans worldwide ready to sing his praises.
With the NFL Draft just over a week away, the anticipation is building to see how Ossenfort fares in the war room for the first time. And if he snags a few ringers, it could set the stage for what to expect in the seasons to come.