In the days of yore, when Kurt Warner was here, he was able to make one of the worst lines in league history look very respectable -- much, much better than it really was. He made Levi Brown look like the top 10 pick he was instead of what we all knew he was.
Out of that golden age, we were then introduced to Derek Anderson, Max Hall, John Skelton, Kevin Kolb, and Ryan Lindley, and it showed us all what a truly horrific line we had as those men spent more time on their backs then some of the ladies at the Bunny Ranch.
The Steve Keim/Bruce Arians era started out wanting to improve the line desperately by drafting Cooper, who was the first guard to be drafted in the top 10 since 1997. Breaking his leg last year was a tough blow to him, but i would guess that it's going to be fixed this year and he is going to show his value on the left side.
Moving along to this year, Keim has once again been able to make an excellent deal for a player who was willing to take less money (apparently) to play for a team that won 10 games last year and is a Tackle away from the playoffs. Not only is he what I think is the best tackle in free agency, but he costs way less than Branden Albert, who was the only name that was connected to Arizona for months.
Being completely honest here, if Veldheer is even a top-15 LT in this league for the next five years, he is going to be worth every single penny of his contract that he signed. At the end of the day, $35 million for a LT is very, very inexpensive if he performs... if he ends up like Levi Brown then we are doomed. I cant imagine him going that way because he is a team player (taking less money), he wants to win, he seems to me to want to improve every day, and he is mean (not dirty -- looking at you, Richie Incognito).
At the end of the day, we now have four years with the left side of the line intact and ready to play. Average play will make this team a playoff team. Good will make this team a NFC Champion ship team, and if they get to where we expect them to with their potential then I cant wait to see where this team can go.