Day Two of the Draft has come and gone and it's about time we start looking to fortify our OLB group. There should be some value available at our fourth pick, with players once expected to go as high as the second having already fallen out of the third. This is great news for fans as plenty of good players are still on the board, and great news for the front office who will be able to use "value" and "best player" as excuses for taking these guys instead of offensive tackles.

Following is an athletic chart and projected round for the players I have tabbed as 3-4 OLB prospects alongside a few of my thoughts on the remainder of the class. Make sure to leave your comments on who you like and what you think we should do.

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All right guys, we have reached the last meaty bite I am going to ask you to take (this draft season, at least). The first round starts in under 24 hours and I think we're all excited to get this business underway. In the meantime, you can check out my report on three players who merit consideration on Saturday: Brandon Lindsey, Darius Fleming and Jacquies Smith.

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In today's scouting barrage, I spent some time looking into Kyle Wilber, Josh Kaddu, Jonathan Massaquoi and Demario Davis, and I hope you will, too. As always, let me know who you like, who you don't, and who you want to see in Cardinal red. I have one last group to do for tomorrow and when the whole series is complete I'll lump 'em all together on one big chart and we can talk about who we like best.

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The first-draft of this post looked radically different than what you're seeing now. I originally wasn't even going to look at Ronnell Lewis or Bruce Irvin but the more mocks I saw, the more often those two players were available in the third round. I'm sure you all have formed your opinions on these guys already but I wanted to take a closer look at them myself, and hopefully generate some discussion.

If you're curious about the charts, refer to this introduction where I established an athletic bench-mark. If you're wondering why I'm doing this in the first place, let me remind you of the outside linebackers currently on the squad:

• Sam Acho
• O'Brien Schofield
• Brandon Williams
• Antonio Coleman

And that last guy? He's so big now he might actually be a defensive end but I have no idea because I'm pretty sure he's just a camp body. The point is, we have an opening at the position. To be honest, we probably have three openings considering any sane 3-4 team would want to keep around 5 OLB's on the roster (unless you're counting Stewart Bradley there, which I am not).

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Having chronicled the bottom of the 3-4 OLB barrel, our resident scout/draftnik extraordinaire Seth Cox mentioned I should take a look at, in so many words, players people actually care about! A logical conclusion no doubt, and that is what I have done (and will be doing up until the draft). Why did I start at the end and am now working my way up? Well, I just can't get all that excited about anyone in the middle of this class. I understand what they mean when they say it is a weak pass-rushing class. I don't think there will be a Sam Acho sitting in round 4 waiting to light up a team's draft grade.

There are seven guys I'm working on reports for but since they are a little higher on the totem pole than my previous reports, we have more information to go through for each. For everyone's sanity, I will be breaking them up into two-a-days (after this introductory post). Once we've gotten through them all I'll write up a brief conclusion and we can figure out who we want for the Cardinals.

First, I would like to establish the benchmarks that we will be judging these players by, which begins with this handy-dandy table:

What we have here are some interesting statistics regarding notable 3-4 OLB's currently active in the league. These guys set the pace for performance on the field, may as well let them set the pace for timed speeds as well, right? I figured out the average of all these players and posted it in italics after explaining each category.

Height and weight are obvious, but interesting -- pass rushers come in all different shapes and sizes.
Height: 6'2"+
Weight: 259lbs.
Arm length is important because the longer your arms are, the easier a time you will have keeping big, NFL-sized offensive linemen away from your body.
"Okay" arm length for an NFL offensive tackle is 33".
40 is a measurement of straight-line speed. The 10Y(ard dash) is more important for these guys as it is purely a measurement of speed off-the-snap.
40: 4.67 seconds
10Y: 1.60 seconds
BP measures upper-body strength, fitness (bench press). It's not a good general measurement of a player's strength, however. Lower-body and core strength are crucial as well. A lot of college players seem to have one set going for them but not the all-around package.
BP: 25 reps
Broad jump and Vertical leap reflect a player's lower-body strength. It is a measure of their explosiveness and can indicate a player's ability to "anchor" against run-blocking offensive linemen.
Broad: 10'00"
Vert: 36"
20s is a player's short shuttle; it is a measure of acceleration and hip flexibility. Of note from FootballOutsiders.com, "No elite edge rusher has emerged from any round of the NFL Draft since at least 1999 with a short shuttle slower than 4.42 seconds." I should mention that the quote was taken before Aldon Smith ran a 4.55 20s!
20s: 4.30 seconds
3Cn is a measurement of a player's agility and quickness.
3Cn: 7.00 seconds

Thus, the average, elite, three-down, pass-rushing linebacker's athletic table would look like this:

I have to note that a player being worse-than-average in any particular category is not necessarily condemning. I would suggest that the more categories you are worse-than-average in, the more you have working against you, but if Aldon Smith can make it work, so can anyone.

A couple things I find interesting:

• Clay Mathews' 10 Yard Dash is as fast as Patrick Peterson's. It shouldn't even be possible for a man to move that quickly at 240lbs (Peterson himself is cornerback-big at 219lbs.)
• You may have never heard of Connor Barwin but he's the guy who made Mario Williams expendable in Tennessee. This table gives you one piece of that puzzle.
• Hali is pretty big at 275 and, honestly, falls short in all categories except the 20s where he is one tick over the average (pretty good at 275). I believe he is also a guy that took a couple years to find much success in the NFL. Could be it took them a while to get him to his ideal weight?
  
• Our very own Sam Acho put up the best 3 Cone for a linebacker probably ever, and he did it at 263lbs. People weren't happy with his athleticism when we drafted him. I'm still pretty content with it!
  
• I still cry a little every time I read Von Miller's line, though.
• Dumervil is short for this group. I really wonder what his arm length is -- definitely the guy to review if you're an undersized prospect. Looks like he compensated with muscle. 257 is as big as it gets for a 6'0" linebacker and 30 reps in the bench press? Not too shabby.
• Fully extended and leaping, these guys can almost reach up to 12' in the air. How do any passes make it past the line of scrimmage in the NFL?

If there's something I messed up or that you disagree with or, perhaps, a player you think should be in this table, let me know.

Here I present part two-of-two of my amateurish effort scouting rush linebackers at the tail-end of this year's draft class. Of the players following, all are considered borderline-draftable players who will get looks in the sixth- and seventh-rounds by teams that like what they offer, want them in camp, and which aren't willing to risk letting the players hit the free-for-all scramble to sign undrafted guys after the draft. They will need strong special teams play to make a roster, gradually earning confidence and playing time. Many will go straight to a practice squad near you and, hopefully, develop into solid players. Ultimately what it comes down to with these guys is the want-to. They don't have any media attention. Nothing will be handed to them and they are going to have to work for it, but these are the guys who I believe can make the transition to the NFL if they put the time in.

If there is a second radar under the radar that everyone talks about when they say a player is under-the-radar, that's the radar that these guys are on. I did my best on this list, scavenging whatever information I could find but almost all of the following analysis I acquired via word-of-mouth rather than actually watching the tape myself -- I just don't have access to it.

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I would like to present a quick-and-dirty run-down of some of the defensive ends and outside linebackers who I think are worth chasing late in the draft. These are all guys who aren't getting a ton of attention but are worth taking a look at for a team like ours with a hole at rush linebacker. This is the first of two planned parts, and will focus on players who I believe will be drafted between rounds 6 and 7.

I'm not a professional or anything (which will become obvious once we get going), just a man with too much time on his hands. In other words, I have culled my information from equal parts game footage and various scouting reports scattered across the internet. It's possible you will draw an entirely different conclusion from the same information and even if you don't, I'm interested in your opinion!

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The Scenario

I participated in a 7-round live mock draft over at MockingtheDraft this past weekend. In it, one person represented each team from the first round all the way down to undrafted selections.
You can find the re-cap thread here.
Pick-by-pick Draft Tracker (so you can see who all was taken and when).
Following are the results I picked for the Cardinals and my thoughts on each after the jump! Make sure to vote and add your opinions on who you like and who you don't!

The Picks

1- Jonathan Martin, OT, Stanford
2- Kevin Kolb, QB, Mickey Mouse University
3- Nigel Bradham, ILB, FSU
4- Greg Childs, WR, Arkansas
5- Kyle Wilber, OLB, Wake Forest
6- Russell Wilson, QB, Wisconsin
7a- Omar Bolden, CB, ASU
7b- Damon Harrison, NT, William Penn
7c- Eddie Whitley, FS, VA Tech

UDFA
Jeremiah Warren, OG, S Florida
Aston Whiteside, OLB, Abilene Christian
Matt Daniels, S, Duke
Jeff Adams, OT, Columbia

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I recently completed a 7-round mock draft over at mockingthedraft.com. Representing the Cardinals, I was faced with a conundrum at round 1, pick 13. First I will show you who was off the board by that point:

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Well, Week 2 has come and gone and, as GM of the Cardinals, I see no reason to hit the panic button just yet.  There are, however, some disturbing patterns emerging here that, despite years of neglect, haven't yet managed to fix themselves.

Problem 1:
Our offensive tackles suck.
Problem 2:
Our outside linebackers suck.
Problem 3:
Our offense continues to confuse "ball security" with "wearing a cup."

Solutions after the jump!

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Got to re-watch game 1 tonight.  DVR is a beautiful thing.  Noticed a few new things, and cemented some of my earlier impressions.  Here are my thoughts:

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Another Day, Another QB Thread

Here's a look at some of the recent QB trades that have gone down, and a light comparison between past moves and some of the moves we've been considering. We'll start with a few rudimentary statistics (if you want to know how the QB's are on 3rd downs, in the red-zone, or other important categories, you'll have to find better references than I did). As is the nature with dealing some of these unknown-quantity QB's, there's not a lot to go on other than preseason numbers. I wouldn't call it reliable, but it's all we have. When I say this price or that price would be fair, it is based off of both my comparison to similar players and the assumption that, after many painstaking hours, our front office has (hypothetically) decided X guy is the dude we want. Fair warning: there's a lot to digest here.

Note: I started writing this post a week or two ago, but at this point it's more of an addendum to the following discussions:
Kolb Vs. Schaub
A Possible QB Armageddon
The Ugly Truth

Jesus Hair
At the time of this trade, the face of Suave's "For Men" product line had never appeared in a regular season game.
Preseason Totals, San Diego:
104/197 54.3% 540 yds 5.2 Avg 5-7 (TD-Int)
Not a lot of throws, not a lot of good. With so little to go on, I'm kind of surprised he commanded even a small bidding war. With this trade as a precedent, making a move for non-established unknowns may be more expensive this year. Here's what he did for Seattle last season:
Preseason '10, SEA:
46/90 51.1% 634 yds 7.1 Avg 4-4
Regular Season '10, SEA:
57/99 57.6 507 yds 5.1 Avg 2-3

Kevin Kolb
Let's face it, his price could be anywhere from two seconds to laughably prohibitive (1sts, 2nds, DRC, Beanie, Kitchen Sink).
For full statblock of Kolb and Schaub, please refer to: Kolb Vs. Schaub
Another Kolb Naysayer, from PFF.com

MATT SCHAUB
On paper, Kolb's value should be roughly equivalent to Shaub's, I would think. Kolb has more experience but his numbers aren't any better. If you believe his absurd inconsistency is a product of inexperience and something he will out-grow, then Kolb would be worth that kind of investment. I don't believe any team should be expected to pay more than the price established with the Schaub deal, despite the current league-wide QB climate.

Post-Apocalypse QBs:

CALEB HANIE
Preseason Totals:
70/116 60.3% 843 Yards 7.3 Avg 6-4

Hanie has appeared in 4 regular season games, but his accrued 14 attempts aren't worth judging. I am assuming you saw him play Green Bay last year. He looked pretty good but it's a little crazy to judge a QB off of one game. Compared to the "matches" we've been hearing about for Arizona, Hanie has the least experience. However, his pretty-good preseason numbers and his showing against Green Bay in the playoffs cement his value somewhere above Jesus Hair but definitely below Schaub or Kolb. I think a 2nd round pick would be fair (right around the value of Holylocks). He will be the No. 2 in Chicago this year if he can beat out Nathan Enderle, but their offensive coordinator, Mike Martz, has never really committed to the guy so acquiring him might be a possibility.

DREW STANTON
Regular Season, Career:
104/187 55.6% 1158 Yards 6.2 Avg 5-9
Regular Season, '10:
69/119 58% 780 Yards 6.6 Avg 4-3

Showed fairly well in relief in Detroit this year, well enough to potentially earn a No. 2 job somewhere. Detroit placed a second-round tender on him to play a reserve role but I'd think we could woo him with our depth chart and a decent contract, and the cost of a 2nd round pick would be fair value for a player like Stanton who appears to be on the rise. Note that Stanton may be a true free agent depending on the new CBA.

And now, the sticker shock segment!

According to the trade value chart, Schaub cost:
100 (1st round swap; 8th-to-10th)
500 (2nd; pick 8)
420 (next year's 2nd; pick 16)
Total: 1020 (roughly equivalent to Round 1, Pick 15)

Put That Hair in a Commercial's cost:
100 (2nd round swap; pick 8 to pick 28)
230 (3rd; pick 8)
Total: 330 (equivalent to Round 2, Pick 25)

Matt Cassel + Mike Vrabel:
560 (2nd; pick 2)
Judging by most of these deals, KC got a really good price for a player with a nice mix of experience, potential, and a little bit of that unknown risk factor. It's not like Vrabel was just a throw-in, either, having started 30 of 32 games for the Chiefs.

Jay Cutler + Round 5, Pick 12 (worth 36):
900 (1st; pick 18)
1250 (1st in 2010; pick 11)
+Kyle Orton (hey, not bad)
Total: 2114
This is the price of an established starter? Another established starter and omgwtfbbq draft picks?

Brady Quinn:
23.4 (6th; pick 10)
? 2012 conditional (probably not very much)
+Peyton Hillis (lolpwnd)
Total: Josh McDaniels' tenure as head coach

Donovan McNabb
530 (2nd; pick 5)
86 (4th; pick 8)
Total: 616 (roughly equivalent to Round 1, Pick 30)

Hypothetical: Kyle Orton
To put an estimate on our 2012 draft pick values, let's say the QB we add takes us into the playoffs but not very far.
350 (2nd; pick 23)
We've also heard recently he may be available for:
155 (3rd; pick 23)
56 (5th; pick 23)
Total: 211
This is probably too cheap. I could see Orton commanding a Cassel-type deal, though that's just my opinion. His price has, supposedly, been on the rise recently.

Hypothetical: Kevin Kolb
Based on the above presumption (an early playoff exit this year with a new QB at the helm) and the most-recent rumor of Kolb being available for either a 1st or two 2nds:
760 (1st; pick 23)
or
350 (2nd; pick 23)
410 (2nd in 2013; pick 17)
Total: 760
If everything worked out this way, this doesn't look like a bad price. We'd be paying a bit less than Houston paid for Schaub to acquire a player with a bit more experience but similar question marks.

Help Still Wanted

If we were to start someone like Kolb, Hanie, or Stanton, these players might be worth bringing in as back-ups or mentors. Ideally they wouldn't be playing much -- just a few quarters in relief, maybe a game or two. If the starter were to miss multiple games for whatever reason, it might be worth it to go ahead with Skelton.

Marc Bulger
Bulger would be signed for the knowledge and experience he brings. Baltimore paid him handsomely to be a back-up last year. No reason to assume they're the only team that would.

Billy Volek
In this hypothetical, we're looking for a solid spot-duty man. At 35, Volek has made a career out of being that guy.

Jim Sorgi
Has only thrown for 929 yards in his career, but has been effective in those brief appearances. He was on injured reserve last year so rust is a concern, but Sorgi has been well-regarded around the league for some time.

Patrick Ramsey
Not a bad option for an experienced, dirt-cheap #2 or #3 but has had trouble sticking on a roster the last couple years, which probably isn't a good sign.

Here's a final link for your consideration:
NFL Network's brief scouting report of Kolb, Orton, and Bulger

1-Acquire a QB

My first choice?  Kyle Orton.  I agree with the logic some of the Denver guys have posted in other QB threads:  Denver isn't going to be a competitive team this year, so why not start Tebow and get through some of the growing pains in an inconsequential season?  In that case, they should look to move Orton now because it's his last year under contract with them.  I am very willing to give up a second round pick for a QB that will make us competitive.  With Orton, we know exactly what we're getting -- a borderline Top 10 QB who will be consistently good but never elite.  No other available (whether rumored or actual) QB has played as well as he has in the last two years.  There is very little risk here, the reward is obvious, and the cost is acceptable.  Agree to terms for a 2-year extension (giving him 3 total years with the team) before you make the trade.  Let him play out, and keep Skelton on as the Number 2.  Bring in a rookie free agent to compete for the No. 3 job.  Orton has been around enough that he wouldn't benefit much from adding another veteran, and the young guys should be able to learn plenty from him.  If Skelton doesn't improve this year, we still have most of our draft intact to find a better prospect next year (including our 1st-Round pick).

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After a surprising Day 2 that left most members of the board frothing, we should all be pleased to know that there are a couple guys out there who may still be able to help us at key positions this year.

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With the 1st Round of the 2011 Draft officially in the books, what do you guys want to see on Day 2?

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I figure, someone was going to post it sooner or later, so I may as well be the one to start it up, right?

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For the first time in recent memory, we're looking at a relatively young, untested group of linebackers going into the draft.
Of the current group, who do you think will have the biggest chip on their shoulder this year?

Cody Brown
2009 Stats: N/A
The rule of thumb for first and second round picks is that they are capable of coming in and contributing to the team right away.  Obviously, Brown wasn't able to do that, due to a wrist fracture.  With a year of meetings and light conditioning under his belt, will he now be able to make the impact the FO anticipated?

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