2008 Cardinals Defensive Forecast (From a Fan - Not Spam)
Mac
When Ken Whisenhunt retained Clancy Pendergast as the defensive
coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals I was disappointed and I vented
about it in this newsgroup two seasons ago. At that time the simple
truth was that Pendergast in his first season as defensive
coordinator; under Denny Green (2004) - had done wonders for our
defense but our defense had become terrible in the two seasons
following. Pendergast has a nice resume having been apart of the glory
days in Dallas in the 1990's but at the time he was retained I
couldn't fathom how and why he had earned such a vote of confidence
from Ken Whisenhunt. I have half my foot in my mouth, not the whole
thing, following our 2008 season because our defense looked much
improved and set a couple franchise records in the process. For the
time being I am happy Clancy Pendergast is our defensive coordinator,
at the same time Pendergast's defenses have never been consistent
which hopefully will change this season.
The biggest subtraction going into this season is the loss of Calvin
Pace to the Jets. Pace had a career year last season and we are going
to miss his presence but the Jets still paid way too much for him.
Travis Laboy is a strong addition who has looked very effective in the
preseason and won the nod over Bertrand Berry. Don't count Berry out
though, when healthy I always thought he was more effective than Pace
but injuries appear to have caught up with him at this stage of the
game, he does give us a nice presence off the bench which will keep
our defensive line fresh late in games. Antonio Smith appeared to turn
the corner for the Cardinals with regular playing time last year and I
have high hopes for him this season. Gerald Hayes... Well I shouldn't
need to make a statement for Gerald Hayes, he is an unreal athlete and
one of the most underrated linebackers in all of football. Chike
Okeafor and Karlos Dansby are both back, and they are both good
linebackers who if healthy are going to have career years. The
secondary is where I think we have made up the most ground in the
offseason. First, we moved Antrel Rolle to FS a position that most
think is much better suited for Rolle who is a very talented athlete
but hasn't shined at CB since being drafted. I think Rolle fits the FS
position much better and had been doing a nice job there prior to
being injured. The return of Adrian Wilson is huge, he's a former pro-
bowler and has huge talent and has been one of the only shining spots
in the Cardinals secondary since he was drafted by us in 2001. Eric
Green, Roderick Hood, and first round draft pick Dominique Rodgers
Cromartie will handle the CB duties - I have never been overly big on
Eric Green but Roderick Hood is an established CB coming off a good
season and I am as excited to see Rodgers-Cromartie as any pick dating
back to Fitzgerald. I have watched a lot of tape on Cromartie, I have
read a lot of scout reports on him and I expect Rodgers-Cromartie to
be a game changer for this team. He has unreal speed, he can play the
ball better than any secondary player that came out of the draft, and
he is a lot my physical than it was reported in scouts write ups.
I don't mean to make our defense sound spectacular because unlike the
offense, this defense still has it's holes such as the constantly
injured Gabe Watson who has skills but seems to be off the field a lot
more than on the field. Alan Branch is also injured which puts a large
hole right in the middle of our defensive line. Karlos Dansby is often
injured. Eric Green and Antrel Rolle have both had consistency issues
and even with the addition of Cromartie I would like to see more depth
in our secondary. Our defense has an upside but it has a downside too.
Our defense is going to be better than San Francisco's and St. Louis'
- no question in my opinion. Seattle's defense isn't great either but
I think in terms of defensive ranking we would be 1 and 1A in the
division, I don't see either teams defense being that much better than
the others. The bottom line.... Our defense is good enough to get us
into the playoffs... we are an NFC team. How far can they carry us in
the playoffs? Impossible to tell, but if the light finally shines on
us and a couple pieces of the puzzle fall into place, anything is
possible.