This is an opinion piece.

I am not going to tell you what the Cardinals brass will do in next Thursday's 2010 NFL Draft. I am not one of Ken Whisenhunt's golfing buddies, nor am I chatting up Rod Graves' for personal finance advise.

I cannot unveil their secret draft plans, although I am really looking forward to another "huh?..." moment when they choose some unheard of player from a small school in the middle rounds...and it turns out to be a player like a Tim Hightower or a Greg Toler.

This is simply a list of ten players that Arizona has any chance of snagging at pick No.26 that I would be very excited to acquire , and the explanations why.

1. CJ Spiller, RB Clemson...

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If Kurt Warner retires as expected, the biggest question to be answered in the Cardinals' offseason is what will happen at the quarterback position?

Matt Leinart is the obvious choice to step into Warner's shoes and have a go at leading the team. The organization has invested many millions and four years into this former first round draft pick, and despite the valid concerns about his arm strength and overall effectiveness he will begin the 2010 season with more knowledge of the Cardinals offense than any other quarterback should Warner follow through with retirement.

Since Leinart has more going for him than any quarterback currently outside of the organization, it is his job to lose. However, with only one inexperienced QB behind him in Brian St. Pierre—a career backup who is not a lock to return to the team next season—it is logical to think that the Cardinals will bring in at least one other QB either through the draft or free agency to compete for a roster spot.

It is not a stretch to imagine if that player is impressive enough they could wrestle the starting job away from Leinart, but at the very least the team will need depth in case Leinart gets injured or cannot get the job done. Where will that player come from?

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If you hadn't watched every snap of the Cardinals season as I did and only caught their playoff performance, you might surmise that their defense is awful. To be sure, Arizona's season ended on a sour note at the hands of a very good football team.

Nothing went Arizona's way: I mean let's face it, it is hard enough to stop the No.1 ranked offense with a full, healthy roster. With LB Gerald Hayes (arguably the Cardinals best run-stuffing backer) already having been declared inactive for the game, after Pro Bowl CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (the Cardinals' only true cover DB) and Pro Bowl alternate Safety Antrel Rolle were both injured early, and it was game on for the Saints.

The 3-4 defense only works if pressure is applied to the QB, and the Cardinals had no rush whatsoever. At that point, instead of game on it was more like game over.

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ROTB masses, Scott Z. Brady (SZB) and myself (Chris Farmer aka Undrafteds) are Arizona Cardinals Featured Columnists on BleacherReport, and two of the main cogs over at the Cardinals' BlogBlitz on NFL.com c/o SportsFanLive.

We have been doing this Q&A series for a while in both locations, and I thought I would bring some of it over here to get more participation and feedback, because we all know ROTB is where it's at.

Tell us what you think. If you like this format, it can be expanded to include more writers here.

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He has been ridiculed for getting beaten repeatedly in pass coverage in recent weeks, leading critics to proclaim that at 5'8", Cardinals CB Michael Adams is simply over-matched because of his less than ideal height.

Darrell Green was one of the best defensive backs in NFL history and he was 5'9"/184 lbs. Adams is 5'8"/181 lbs.

While Green's best asset was his Olympic-caliber speed, Adams has shown off an astounding vertical leap. Adams is a work in progress and a great prospect if he continues to improve. He has flashed tremendous athleticism and is a hard worker.

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Karlos Dansby set the tone on the first play of the game by breaking up a pass that was intercepted and eventually converted into seven points, stripped veteran Donald Driver on the Packer's third play from scrimmage that was recovered by Alan Branch and also converted into seven points, and ended the contest with a fumble recovery for a touchdown in overtime to seal the deal 51-45 in a wild one.

Michael Adams, the 5'8" reserve defensive back who had been picked on repeatedly in coverage by Aaron Rodgers the past two weeks, initiated the game winning play by causing a fumble while sacking Rodgers.

The DB had been much maligned in games and in fan forums for being a hair late or an inch shy. Michael Adams kept bringing the heat and battled through a long string of near-misses. Several times in the contest he had been very close to making many plays and fell short.

On the final play of the game, his persistence and determination paid off in a big way—as he made the biggest play of his life and the game deciding play of one of the best playoff games in NFL history.

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The Cardinals crushed Minnesota and handed them their second loss of the season when people were saying the Vikings were the most complete team in football, beat the Giants and handed them their second loss of the season when people were saying they were the best team in football, and lost to Green Bay when they weren't playing.

The Packers lost to Minnesota twice in what were arguably their two most meaningful games of their year, beat Dallas when the Cowboys were playing their worst ball of the year, and lost to a Pittsburgh team that couldn't beat Oakland, Kansas City or Cleveland in the weeks leading up to their matchup.

These are some of the reasons I like the Cardinals chances to come out on top this weekend.

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While the Cardinals pieced together a calculated patchwork of backups and starters on pitch counts, the Packers played three quarters of the game as if the outcome mattered.

Only time will tell which strategy was the right one, but there were clearly two entirely different approaches to yesterday's game between Green Bay and Arizona.

Green Bay chose their poison: momentum, flow, sync and confidence, wanting to start the postseason on a roll. Arizona selected their strategy: to rest players, hold their cards close to their vest so as to reveal virtually nothing.

The result is that Cardinals fans are quick to point out that it appeared the Arizona players didn't care, among other valid concerns. Critics will say they were lethargic and outmatched even when the starters from both squads were on the field.

I contend that this was all part of Ken Whisenhunt's master plan.

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Now that the Vikings have lost, I actually prefer the Packers To Win Week 17 Now. The Cardinals haven't lost two in a row yet so it would set quite the precedent don't you think?

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Most of the playoff seeding scenarios end with the Cardinals and Packers more than likely having to face each other in consecutive weeks at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Assuming the Vikings don't lose again, and the so-and-so's win, and the yada yada yada's crumble under pressure.

Honestly I don't get too caught up in the possibilities, I am content to watch the realities unfold in Week 17.

The only things that are certain is that of these NFC playoff teams, the Cardinals are West Champs and the Packers are a wild-card, and one will be 10-6 while the other will have earned their eleventh victory of the 2009 season.

Will it be because they played all of their starters, and used the game as a final tune-up for the playoffs? Or will it be because the other team rested all of its key players with not enough to be gained from a victory to risk injury?

That is why the final game of the season for Arizona and Green Bay holds so much intrigue.

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• Kurt Warner became only the second QB in NFL history to pass for 100 or more touchdowns for two different teams.
• Adrian Wilson became the tenth player in NFL history to record 20 or more interceptions and sacks in a career.
• Rookie CB Greg Toler recorded his first career interception.
• Second-year WR Early Doucet caught his first career TD pass.
• Steve Breaston caught the Cardinals' longest reception of the season with a 45-yarder.
• With his eighth rushing TD this season, Tim Hightower tied Ernie Nevers and Ottis Anderson for the most rushing TD's by a Cardinal in a two-year span with 18

Did I miss any?

Now, I realize it is difficult to find people that get excited talking about kickers, but football purists know that despite all the jokes, a kicker is a valuable part of any NFL team. Missed kicks lose Super Bowls, and made ones can be the difference between an 8-8 team that misses the playoffs and a 12-4 team that wins the division.

Our own Neil Rackers started his career with three years in Cincinnati, and in case you don't remember was the butt of many jokes. Let's face it, he played for a miserable team and was inaccurate to boot (pun intended).

His rookie year he hit on only 12 out of 21 field goal attempts, a rate of 57.1%. In today's climate he is lucky to have been invited back the following two seasons.

He started to show glimpses of his Pro Bowl form by his third season, when he improved his accuracy to 83%, but was ultimately let go anyway at the beginning of the 2003 season in favor of another eventual Pro Bowler, Shayne Graham.

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Often I feel like the Arizona Cardinals are the most extreme as far as highs and lows of any team I have witnessed in my 30 years of football enthusiasm. It is not just winning and losing of which I speak, but how dominating versus how dominated they can be from one moment to the next, sometimes all in the same game.

For fans, it packs the roller coaster ride so full of surprise twists and turns, the highs feel like Mount Everest and the lows feel like instant deep depression.

Let's face it, they are bipolar.

When things are going well it is exhilarating, and when things go bad the gut-wrenching exceeds normal fandom levels.

This is a team that last year started 7-3, ended 2-4, with three of those last four losses being embarrassing, miserable efforts. Then, they made an improbable run to the Super Bowl, becoming only the second 9-7 team to make it that far, and darn near pulled off the win.

This year, they crushed the Vikings, the most complete team in the NFL according to some, and then got crushed by an average-at-best 49ers team their very next outing. It isn't the 'W' or the 'L' that is so confounding, it is the stark contrast of efforts and execution in each. Against the Vikings they looked like Super Bowl contenders, and against the 49ers they looked like an expansion team.

It is so uncanny, this Cardinals' innate "ability", that it boggles the mind, and it is not just this year's model or last. Although I cannot say I know when this pattern started, it certainly spans at least a few seasons.

So the question to ponder is: Is this a character trait the Cardinals can patent, or is it that I am just more focused on the see-sawness of my favorite team, and that all teams struggle with their inner Jekyll and Hyde in much the same way?

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As we prepare for the Cardinals-49ers Monday Night Football matchup, with a chance for Arizona to claim its second NFC West crown in a row with a win, lets take a look back at the season to date to see what we have learned. In the name of reader enjoyment, I'll start with my synopsis, with a skimming of the surface breakdown to follow.

What have we learned? I don't have to tell any of you that we can all watch every snap and come away with very different versions of what we saw. So maybe it is more appropriate to say, what have I learned?

I have learned that the 2009 Cardinals are a new improved version of the 2008 Cardinals. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? 

More precisely, the 2008 model was good enough to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in team history, but inconsistent and unreliable, especially at the most inopportune times such as the excruciating Steelers' game winning drive.

Last year, the teams primary weaknesses, arguably of course, were giving up the big play way too often, not winning on the road, and general inability to run the ball.

This year the Cardinals are not giving up nearly as many big plays on defense, are 5-1 on the road, and have increased their team yards per carry average from 3.5 last year to 4.1.

But it goes further than the numbers.

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• The two most important stats of the game: Adrian Peterson toted the rock 13 times for 19 yards, including an 11-yarder, and Jared Allen was blanked entirely from the stat sheet. No solo tackles, no assists, no sacks—no nothin'.
• Jeremy Bridges deserves the game ball without question. To step in and play left tackle, a position he had never played, against one of the most feared defenders in the league and completely shut him down is miraculous. I know that Bridges received help from Ben Patrick and Tim Hightower and others, and that Allen was double-teamed for the majority of the contest, but Bridges did his job and Allen was dominated. That was an effort not many Pro Bowlers can muster, performed by a career back-up.
• Maybe Anquan Boldin hasn't lost anything. Q turned in a two-TD effort while running after the catch like the Boldin of old. I had publicly questioned his form recently, trying to recall the last time I saw him running angry and breaking tackles. Last night proved to me that he still owns the fire, and apparently is fully healthy for the first time all season.
• It was great to see Larry Fitzgerald become a focal point of the offense once more, and he produced with a season-high 143 yards, including his longest reception on the season with a 34-yarder.

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The media is fickle. That much is a given. It is boggling though how former players and coaches alike, presumed experts about everything football and particularly NFL football, can give off such amateur assessments sometimes. The example I provide here is not even that shocking necessarily, but it is relevant anyway. Watch this clip before reading on.

So the conclusion by our ESPN analysts is that the Vikings will win because:

1) The Vikings don't have any weaknesses.

2) Brett Favre is playing great.

3) Arizona has a 2-3 record at home.

4) The Vikings are great at stopping the run and rushing the passer.

Let me roll up my sleeves and tell you what is really going down.

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I want to take one last look at the final drive of the Titans-Cardinals clash that is already an instant classic, and another stunning moment in the Vince Young legacy.

As a fan of the losing team, it is easy to criticize in hindsight when things didn't go your way, but I thought it might be therapeutic to add my notes of what I was thinking during the drive.

We've gotta put this baby to rest so we can get prepared for the Vikings.

Tennessee Titans at 2:37    ARI    TEN
1st and 10 at TEN 1    V.Young pass short right to K.Britt to TEN 7 for 6 yards (D.Rodgers-Cromartie).
2nd and 4 at TEN 7    V.Young pass incomplete short right to B.Scaife.
3rd and 4 at TEN 7    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete short right to K.Britt (D.Rodgers-Cromartie).

At this point, Cardinals Nation was thinking, just one more stop and we go home with the win. Me personally I was thinking bring the house, all out blitz on this 4th and 4 and force Young's hand before he can react.

If he is fortunate enough to react and get a pass away that is completed, have one of the fastest players around in DRC playing off enough to have an angle to prevent the huge TD run after catch. Heck put Greg Toler in the game and have two blazing speedsters in safety valve mode.

Instead, the Cardinals rush 3 and rely on their biggest weakness—pass coverage—to make a stop in the biggest moment of the game. I don't get that at all. If you have 4 sacks in the game, THAT is your strength, so use it.

Even then Bryant McFadden was in decent enough coverage, except as he has been prone to do, didn't turn around to make a play on the ball and Britt made a nice catch.

4th and 4 at TEN 7    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short left to K.Britt to TEN 17 for 10 yards (B.McFadden).
1st and 10 at TEN 17    (No Huddle, Shotgun) V.Young pass short middle to B.Scaife to TEN 36 for 19 yards (B.McFadden, A.Wilson).

The completion to Bo Scaife was an unfortunate fluke that happens, there is nothing you can do about it. Sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way.

This could have easily been an INT and ended the game. Instead, a tipped pass by an Arizona defender floated directly into the arms of Scaife. This reminded me of the Giants game where DRC's nice play resulted in his tip fluttering into the hands of Hakeem Nicks who scored on the play.

At least this time he didn't score, I thought.

1st and 10 at TEN 36    (No Huddle, Shotgun) V.Young pass short left to L.Hawkins pushed ob at TEN 38 for 2 yards (B.McFadden).
2nd and 8 at TEN 38    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short left to J.Cook ran ob at 50 for 12 yards.

Alright, what kind of crazy karma or some such is going on here? I have been waiting ALL YEAR for the Titans to utilize Jared Cook, why oh why do they have to do it on a game winning drive that beats my team in a heart-breaker?

Cook is an athletic freak that SteveSpurrier compared to Calvin Johnson in college, and I got so amped up about him I made him one of my Top 5 Fantasy Sleepers. I even took a flier on him and drafted him late. My fantasy team has suffered this season, and how ironic that Cook was helping beat my Cardinals with two of the best plays of his young career.

1st and 10 at 50    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete deep left to N.Washington.
2nd and 10 at 50    (Shotgun) V.Young scrambles right end pushed ob at ARZ 44 for 6 yards (M.Adams).
3rd and 4 at ARI 44    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete short right to B.Scaife [D.Dockett].

Stop them here boys! Stop them and we go home.

4th and 4 at ARI 44    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short left to L.Hawkins pushed ob at ARZ 31 for 13 yards (M.Adams).

Ugh.

1st and 10 at ARI 31    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short left to B.Scaife ran ob at ARZ 26 for 5 yards.
2nd and 5 at ARI 26    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete deep left to N.Washington.
3rd and 5 at ARI 26    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short middle to J.Cook pushed ob at ARZ 9 for 17 yards (R.Brown).

Again, thanks for nothing, Jared.

Timeout #1 by ARZ at 00:21.
1st and 9 at ARI 9    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete short middle to B.Scaife.
2nd and 9 at ARI 9    (Shotgun) V.Young sacked at ARZ 10 for -1 yards (sack split by C.Campbell and C.Haggans).
Timeout #2 by TEN at 00:11.
3rd and 10 at ARI 10    (Shotgun) V.Young pass incomplete short middle to N.Washington.
Timeout #3 by TEN at 00:06.
Timeout #2 by ARZ at 00:06.

Stop them here fellas and we can forget about the other 89 yards.

4th and 10 at ARI 10    (Shotgun) V.Young pass short middle to K.Britt for 10 yards, TOUCHDOWN.    17    19
R.Bironas extra point is GOOD, Center-K.Amato, Holder-B.Kern.    17    20
DRIVE TOTALS: ARI 17, TEN 20, 18 plays, 99 yards, 2:37 elapsed

Tennessee Titans at 0:00    ARI    TEN
End of Game

I have to admit, I felt surprisingly not filled with dread after the play, and the drive by Young. I watched a guy with determination earn that win. It was a heroic drive, and I had just witnessed maybe the best game of the year to date. I was disappointed, but not distraught.

Also, I know the Cardinals can't win every time out and had been 6-1 in their last 7 games. They were due for a loss. Unlike many, I was glad they lost a game like this as opposed to in a blowout. I was glad that someone genuinely beat us instead of us beating ourselves which is how we normally lose. And I am glad it took everything the Titans could muster to get the job done. They earned it but we didn't just bow down and hand it to them.

Not only that, but the Cardinals were laying out Titans all over the field all game long. Hopefully by exposing our two biggest weaknesses—leaving receivers wide open (sometimes) and not being able to stop long drives when we need to the most (sometimes), it will bring back that familiar nasty taste that we had after the Super Bowl loss.

The difference is that now we can use the fresh memory of that taste to motivate us to want to rinse it out at the expense of the Vikings. After theSteelers game, there were no opportunities to allow us to get that feeling out of our system.

Maybe, just maybe having this painful loss now will help get our minds right for another Super Bowl run.