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For the Arizona Cardinals they will have some choices come Thursday.
There are four names we know that the Cardinals want, we can discuss that later, but for now let’s take a look at Peter King’s final mock draft of the 2021 NFL Draft season.
From FMIA:
16. Arizona Cardinals—Greg Newsome II, cornerback, Northwestern
Lots of different opinions about Newsome. One GM with a cornerback need is wary because of his nagging injury history at Northwestern; he missed eight, three and four games due to injury in his three starting seasons. So a team will have to be comfortable with his long-term fitness, obviously, and this is a particularly concern this year because so many shortcuts have been taken medically with no combine and few chances for team medics to put their hands on prospects. Per Dane Brugler, Newsome had 25 passes defensed in 21 college games, and he runs a 4.38 40, and he’s exceedingly fluid.
Also, a note about Arizona options. Peter Schrager, whose mock I sincerely respect, had the Cards trading up from 16 to 7 to take Jaylen Waddle. Kliff Kingsbury, it seems, is smitten with getting more firepower for Kyler Murray. Okay. In the last three years, Arizona’s used two second-round picks on receivers, made a mega-trade-and-signing for DeAndre Hopkins, and bought A.J. Green in free agency. Time to address other needs.
Newsome is the second best cornerback in this draft in my estimation. After watching all the corners, I’d rank them as followed:
Jaycee Horn
Newsome
Patrick Surtain II
Paulson Adebo
Asanta Samuel Jr
Tyson Campbell
Caleb Farley
Farley would be my CB4 if not for the back issues, I’d be comfortable taking him at 49, not in round one.
Getting Newsome at 16 would be a nice fit, he reminds me of Kyle Fuller, who was a big hit in Chicago. He had similar concerns about injuries coming out of Virginia Tech, ended up playing well for a ton of years.
There is more from the King article we will look at over the next couple of days.