Bruce Arians is a patient man, until he has a reason not to be.
Early in the summer Arians talked about the depth at wide receiver on the 2017 Arizona Cardinals roster.
When our own Tyler Nickel wrote in opposition of the hyperbole being used with the overall talent, many disagreed.
The problem was, Tyler was always right.
The Cardinals came into 2017 trying to put a bunch of guys around Larry Fitzgerald that have question marks and pass it off as being enough.
You can have all this talent on the roster, say that you have a bunch of guys that will make the team and it will be hard to make cuts, and still not have a great wide receiver room.
If all of your talent is wide receiver five’s and six’s, then do you have a lot of talent?
The Cardinals know what a healthy John Brown can be, he is a dynamic wide receiver two option.
They are hoping that Jaron Brown responds from his injury and continues on his upward trend of being a potential wide receiver three, maybe turning into a low end wide receiver two.
J.J. Nelson had a breakout year and still wasn’t a top 80 player in terms of yards or a top 130 player in terms of receptions. He had a great year with six touchdowns, but he is a big play receiver, not a guy who is going to catch 90+ passes a year.
Chad Williams was a talented player who needed some time coming into 2017, that hasn’t changed.
Yet, those are your top five by virtue of talent and cost (in terms of draft capital). Outside of Fitz, we really had no idea what they were getting.
Now, Bruce Arians has seen enough:
Strong message from @BruceArians to WRs: "they were told real quietly...I said Steve’s upstairs looking at tape right now for new ones." pic.twitter.com/zyiSda1sFW
— Bauer (@MikeJackBauer) August 15, 2017
Is it the continued missing of time at camp? Maybe.
Is it the ineffectiveness when healthy? Likely.
Is it the combination of the two that has Arians scratching his head? Yes.
A players most important attribute is his availability.
Two players were coming off major injury situations.
Another was a rookie and the last one had a breakout year that many would look at as a high end type of season.
It was never nearly enough, but it is what they have to work with.
I think there is still plenty of time to get it all figured out and get some talent out of this group, but the time for rose-colored glasses is over.
The evaluations have begun and the early results, at least to the coach, are not positive.