Looking At Arizona Drafts Over The Last 20 Years - Round 5

The nice thing about these later rounds is it helps good players stand out more. There are a lot more bad picks, though.

Round 5: (26) - Anthony Redmon, Cedric Davis, Lance Scott, Tito Paul, James Dexter, Harry Stamps, Dell McGee, Chad Carpenter, Terry Hardy, Paris Johnson, Yusuf Scott, Mao Tosi, Jay Tant, Mario Fatafehi, Jason McAddley, Kenny King, Antonio Smith, Lance Mitchell, Brandon Johnson, Steve Breaston, Tim Hightower, Herman Johnson, John Skelton, Anthony Sherman, Senio Kelemete, Stefan Taylor

Best: Steve Breaston. Honorable mentions: Anthony Redmon, Antonio Smith.

Worst: Terry Hardy. Dishonorable mention: John Skelton.

Oh John Skelton, you broke my heart.

5 of the 26 picks never played a game in the NFL: Cedric Davis, Harry Stamps, Chad Carpenter, Paris Johnson, Herman Johnson. There are two others who played in less than 10 games: Jay Tant, Dell McGee. I could add Kelemete to that, but he's still in the league, so I figure there's a chance he'll get more playing time in the future.

There are a lot of guys who played in a surprising number of games, but didn't accomplish much going by AV. Tito Paul has an 8 in 67 games (a 3 in 31 games for Arizona), Terry Hardy a 4 in just 49 games. Arizona never has really started using their tight ends much, no matter how many coaches and offensive coordinators promise to do so.Coby Rhineheart managed a 5 in 61 games. I don't know if these guys were just really bad, or if they were mostly special teamers, and that limits their impact. My guess is the latter, though the former probably had something to do with the latter.

I remember Fatafehi, Tosi, and King from those early 2000s seasons when they had no pass rush, so they kept using lots of draft picks on d-linemen, but they all mostly sucked. Fatafehi at least had a couple of mildly productive seasons after he left, much like Calvin Pace hit his stride after moving to the Jets.

I mostly remember McAddley from late 2002, when the team's top 3 wideouts were all hurt, and they were using anyone they had or could sign off the street. It was him, Nate Poole, and Kevin Kasper by the end of the year, I think. I was going to say I don't even remember Brandon Johnson. Then I saw he only played 9 of his 87 games for the Cardinals. That might explain it.

The Best selections come down to about 4 guys: Redmon, Antonio Smith, Breaston, Hightower. Hightower couldn't stop fumbling, and only kept getting playing time because Beanie Wells couldn't stay healthy. Smith has been much better in his 5 years with the Texans (AV of 38) than his 5 years with Arizona (AV of 20). Redmon was OK for a couple of years, but nothing much overall. Breaston is the guy Arizona thought made Anquan Boldin redundant. Note: Breaston was not actually good enough to do that. Observe that Boldin's still a #1 or 2 receiver for teams that go to championship games, while Breaston can't even crack the starting lineup as part of the Chiefs' sorry-ass receiving corps.

And yet, I think it's Breaston. He wasn't as good as Boldin, but it isn't his fault the team decided he could take Boldin's place. The problem is none of them really stand out. They each had roughly one good year. 2007 for Smith, 1996 for Redmon (though his '97 is almost as good). 2009 for Hightower. Breaston has 2008, which is rated as being better than any of the other guys best season. So I give him the nod.

I gave the worsts to Hardy and Skelton over all those guys who didn't play or barely played because I figure at this stage, a guy getting drafted but not making on the field isn't such a big deal. But a guy apparently showing enough of something to get repeated playing time, then doing basically nothing with it, that's more of a problem. Either it's a problem with the player, or the coaching staff. They see what isn't there, or don't know how to develop what talent they see. I could have used Tito Paul or Yusuf Scott, but the disastrous end of the Skelton Experiment still stings, so he takes the hit.