Clayton Tune: The Fateful Path of an NFL Legacy by Walter Mitchell photo: @azcardinals.com via Instagram During the second night of the 2023 NFL Draft, Clayton Tune received a call from the Green Bay Packers. The Packers wanted to assure Clayton of their interest in drafting the University of Houston quarterback at some point on day three. When the Arizona Cardinals selected Clayton Tune with the #139 pick a day later, he was surprised, given that the Cardinals had not expressed any significant interest in him during the pre-draft process. The Cardinals were not one of the six teams that brought him in for 30 visits (Texans, Saints, Browns, Steelers, Bucs, Giants). Tune had also been given a private workout by the Rams. The eventual link the Cardinals had to Clayton Tune was that Israel Woolfork was one of his coaches at the Senior Bowl. At that time, Woolfork had just finished his second year of a Bill Walsh/Bill Willis coaching fellowship with the Cleveland Browns. A...
My guess that with the money invested in the LBs and the poor performance of the Defense last year, the new coach is thinking he is more than this offseason away in getting them competitive plus he probably wants to give Rallis a chance being he is the owners cheap choice and will go Offensive at #3. He will take the ND RB and attempt to out score teams before he eventually fires Nick. Monti has no credibility, he believes his job is to please the owner to hang on for another season.
ReplyDeleteI agree but you really can’t think Lafluer is calling the draft picks especially since you’re right that MO’s job #1 is to kiss Mikey’s dumb ass.
DeleteFyi Mitch....Kay's opens Sunday 😁
ReplyDeleteOh, that's great news, ERauch! We had a fun talk with the owner. He's been on a mission to make Kay's pizza the best pizza in the world. He goes on scouting trips to the best pizzerias in the USA.
DeleteHit DeLucias in New Jersey had a pretty high bar stool rating. There's a place up in Lynn MA Montys that got #1 rating in last year or two. Is Kay's a local pizzeria?
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ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the pod. Things are getting more positive, which is nice.
ReplyDeleteYou have mentioned several times that the Cardinals could have gotten PJJ in the teens in that draft and I have corrected you. Here is a link that should clear that up.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/fmia/news/nfl-draft-2023-raiders-texans-cj-stroud-peter-king-fmia
In short, the Raiders big board was PJJ, WAJ, Witherspoon and T. Wilson in that order. The Cardinals knew exactly where they had to trade up for PJJ. Everything else that Monti got was bonus since their target was PJJ regardless.
Peter also has glowing praise for the masterful job Monti did, as many other pundits did as well. I bet there isn't a GM in the whole league that wouldn't have done what Monti did if their roster and cap was in the same shape the Cardinals were in when Monti took over.
I don't agree with your Collins take. In 22 at ILB he was good but also missed almost 20 tackles, most in coverage. He was good in the run game and an average coverage linebacker. In 23, at OLB he was the highest graded defensive player. More importantly, it is probably Zaven's choice. At ILB, he is basically like Gibbens - about a 2 year 7.5M dollar player. As a staunch edge setter at OLB capable of putting up 5 sacks as he did in 23, he can make that in one year - not 2. If he breaks out as CC seems to think he will, he could be worth 20M per year. It's the same reason that Reece will be a full time edge rusher in a year or 2, money.
I did try to comment on your trades post the other day but couldn't. There are many errors in that article and almost every one of them put the Cardinals moves in a less favourable light. Its much better for Monti than your article portrayed. I can fix it if you like but the point I would add is that those picks that Monti generated from multiple trades have been instrumental in fixing the cap situation we were in. We are now in one of the best positions in the league thanks to the great job Monti has done. Considering this is likely the number one task given to him by MB for the rebuild, that trade was a must.
Our roster and cap is in a much different place now than when Monti took over and I am sure there will be no trade backs this year and they will take impact players. In fact, my guess is there will be aggressive trade ups to go get a player more than trade backs. The only thing that would change that IMO is if there is a next years 1st round pick involved. Then I could see Monti trading back.