Chad Williams one of NFL Drafts biggest reaches

With the 2017 NFL Draft come and gone, there is a bunch of information still coming out.

There are a number of writers out there covering the draft as one man shows and a lot of them do a lot of work.

That is why I typically don’t lament this stuff, but there is something that people have to understand about the Arizona Cardinals and how they do business in the NFL Draft.

From Luke Easterling of Draft Wire, he believed Chad Williams to be one of the biggest reaches in the 2017 NFL Draft:

With Larry Fitzgerald’s retirement on the horizon, the Cards were expected to spend an early pick on a potential replacement for the legendary pass-catcher. The one they chose on Day 2 was a surprise, however, as they took a talented but raw player in Williams, who wasn’t invited to the combine and has off-field concerns. There were more polished, complete receivers they could have had at that point in the draft, and Williams will have high expectations thanks to his draft slot.

I have tried to explain this before, but the Cardinals and Arians have a type at wide receiver. I believe, and Jess and I talked about this on the podcast, that the Cardinals likely wanted Taywan Taylor at 77, he was picked before them and they then had one wide receiver left with a day two grade on their board.

That was Williams.

When people define reach, they are defining it as, “I didn’t like this player as a top X player, so I am going to say he was a reach.”

Well, if you go by the consensus big board of Arif Hasan, Williams wasn’t just a reach, he was a massive overdraft, like by four rounds. Williams was rated 226 on the consensus big board.

Yet, to the Cardinals, they got a guy who they wanted, where they were comfortable taking him and that is all that matters.