Monday Morning Overreaction: Steve Keim's Miss on Russell Wilson

It's Monday, which means it is time for the Monday morning overreaction and today's comes in the form of Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback article talking to Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim.

In the article Keim laments his passing on Russell Wilson, talking about the fact that his height did not lead to a good NFL comparison in the draft process.  That made Keim hesitant to take the former North Carolina State and Wisconsin quarterback.

From the article:

"Look, I'm from North Carolina State. I study all the guys out of there hard. But I just didn't think there was a good comp for Russell Wilson, and I was wrong. When I think back now, it was a chickens--- call by me. I didn't have the balls to take Russell Wilson."

Self scouting is important, first of all.

It tells you where you are missing things, it tells you how your bias's are affecting your judgment, but this is all kinds of ridiculous.

The Arizona Cardinals had one pick before Russell Wilson was picked in the third round, that was the 13th overall pick in the draft.  NO ONE liked Russell Wilson enough to draft him that high, including the Seattle Seahawks.

Is Keim frustrated with his entire evaluation of Russell Wilson the prospect?

That's great, it tells you your GM understands where and why he needs to improve.

Look at Keim's moves after that: Taking a guard in the top 10 of the draft, drafting a "problem" in Tyrann Mathieu, reaching on a "safety" in Deone Bucannon, thriving in the directional small school scouting world, and oh being willing to take a chance on a "washed up" old quarterback who quit on two teams.

I get the idea of self scouting, Justin and I do an entire summer series on "Why Your Scouting Sucks" that asks you to go back and look at your old reports and figure out what you were thinking.  Those that rationalize usually never improve, those that see where they missed, they rarely make that same mistake again.  

Steve Keim has made a living off of that "mistake" in his evaluation of Russell Wilson, because it has freed him up to be aggressive in players he likes, no matter what the NFL usually thinks of those players.  It has led to the most successful stretch in Arizona Cardinals history.  

If Keim's "misses" lead to more success for the Arizona Cardinals, than by all means, keep missing, Mr. Keim.