Arizona Cardinals: Top 5 worst draft picks of the Steve Keim era
By Jim Koch
Robert Nkemdiche - Defensive Tackle
The Cards were fresh off of a fantastic season when they added Robert Nkemdiche during the 2016 draft. Because of the previous year's success (NFC Championship appearance), Keim had to wait until the 29th-overall choice in Round 1 to nab the defensive tackle. Many experts had Nkemdiche being selected much earlier, so Arizona was thrilled to walk away with such a highly-touted prospect at that point in the proceedings.
As it turned out, Nkemdiche essentially became one of the biggest draft busts in Cardinals history. During his three campaigns in the desert, the 6 foot 3, 296 pounder appeared in a measly 27 matchups, starting in just six of them. Nkemdiche's best showing was in 2018, when he racked up 32 tackles and 4.5 sacks for the Cards defensive unit.
Nkemdiche's decent performance in '18 wasn't enough to impress Keim, and the former Ole Miss star was released in July of 2019. Knee issues would plague the Atlanta native for the remainder of his NFL career, but he was handed one last opportunity with the San Francisco 49ers in July of 2022. Nkemdiche wasn't able to take advantage, and his stint with Arizona's division rival would last a total of just 21 days.