With the way the NFL works, things get spread like wildfire before reality sets in.
Take the Malik Willis rumors.
The Arizona Cardinals were the favorites. The Miami Dolphins didn’t have the money, the help around Willis, etc. The Cardinals were really the only team that made sense.
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Then, on day one of the tampering period, Willis is with the Dolphins within minutes of the window opening.
Now, a couple of weeks later, the NFL Draft rumor mill is going off and it again has the Arizona Cardinals linked to a quarterback.
Yesterday, three different draft analysts/insiders came out and linked the Arizona Cardinals to Ty Simpson and that makes sense.
In the industry no position moves the needle quite like the quarterback position, and when you have Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew as your depth chart, it screams drafting a quarterback.
The question becomes are the Cardinals even in a position to make a move for Simpson?
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If they pick Simpson at three, he has to be a franchise savior right away for Monti Ossenfort to retain his job, you can’t have two wins with quarterbacks in three seasons outside of the guy you got rid of and then get someone that could help in a year or two.
And you can’t really justify a trade up back into round one, ala Jaxson Dart when you have massive needs along the offensive and defensive line, at edge rusher, linebacker and maybe even cornerback due to all the injury issues… Unless Simpson comes in and saves you.
Again, not saying the Cardinals can’t afford it, but Monti Ossenfort can’t.
Ossenfort needs to win, he ran scapegoated Jonathan Gannon, Kyler Murray and Drew Petzing, retained the coach who had the worst results over the three seasons and kept a quarterback that went 1-11.
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Another season with less than six wins and you can’t even say you’re building in the right direction, you just say you are still the same.
So, does Ty Simpson get you there? That’s the question Monti Ossenfort needs to be able to answer.