If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season what the lowest place the Cardinals would be in the NFL Draft order for 2017, it would have been right around the middle of the pack. Yet, because of this season, because of the fickleness of the NFL, the Arizona Cardinals sit with the ninth pick in the 2017 NFL Draft after halfway through the season.
NINTH!
I don’t even know how to process this right now.
Anyway, let’s take a look at the last five picks in the NFL draft that went ninth overall, plus a look at quarterbacks available at the ninth pick the last decade.
2016: Leonard Floyd, LB, Chicago Bears
2015: Ereck Flowers, OT, New York Giants
2014: Anthony Barr, LB, Minnesota Vikings
2013: Dee Milliner, CB, New York Jets
2012: Luke Kuechly, LB, Carolina Panthers
Two of the better linebackers in the NFL were drafted at ninth overall in Anthony Barr and Luke Kuechly, while the Jets and Giants each took players that look overdrafted (Milliner has already been released), but there were some stars drafted shortly after: Sheldon Richardson, Star Lotulelei and Desmond Trufant all were drafted in the next couple of picks after Milliner, while Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, and Marcus Peters were all drafted after Flowers.
As for the quarterback market, well it has been hit and miss:
Nothing changes on the quarterbacks drafted the last five years, no one was worth that ninth pick apparently:
2016: Paxton Lynch
2015: None
2014: Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel
2013: E.J. Manuel
2012: Brandon Weeden
Yet, if you go back to 2007-2011, there have been even more available and only one has been good:
2011: Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder
2010: Tim Tebow
2009: Josh Freeman
2008: Joe Flacco
2007: Brady Quinn
Even picking as high as ninth would likely not put the Cardinals in a great position to draft a quarterback, it would put them in a great position to trade up if there was one they liked.