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When the Arizona Cardinals took Haason Reddick with the 13th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, there was a heavy split on satisfaction with the pick.
I didn't see many who just flat out thought he would be a bust, but I did see a number, maybe 40-50%, who weren't happy with the pick.
That got me thinking, how many draft picks, outside of Jonathan Cooper, did you like and ended up being… well less than you expected?
I can name three off the top of my head:
Kevin Minter
Kareem Martin
Deone Bucannon*
Now, Minter and Martin are fairly obvious. I thought Minter would be the next Ronald McKinnon, a fierce leader in the middle, racking up tackles, being with the team for a decade. He played basically two forgettable seasons and could only scrounge up a one year deal in free agency.
Martin never developed, I saw a player who could become that Matt Shaughnessy type defender, moving from OLB to down five tech and being a consistent contributor working his way into the rotation. Well, he's not that, he has 2.5 sacks and 19 tackles… in his career. He's basically an afterthought at this point.
Bucannon gets an asterisk, because he's not what I expected, but it's not his fault.
I knew Drone would never be Earl Thomas as a safety, but I thought he'd be closer to Adrian Wilson by this time. A consistent force who moved between safety and linebacker and forced more turnovers. The fact Wilson wasn't at his peak his first three years does give you hope that Bucannon takes that next step, like Wilson did where in year four and on he became one of the most indispensable defensive players in the NFL.
Bucannon can definitely still reach that, but the positional transition, in my mind, has hindered him getting there sooner.
I'm watching Humphries this year, he needs to be close to or above what Veldheer has been at left tackle, in my mind.
What do you think?