2016 Team Needs: NFC West
By jonfox
Edge pass rusher. The Cards weathered the loss of Todd Bowles pretty well. They promoted from within and got Bowles’ top assistant to take over. And they still had a top 7 defense in terms of yards and points.
However they still did struggle in one area: sacks. They had 36 sacks in 2015 and this was a 1 sack improvement on 2014. They’ve been predicating their 3-4/3-3-5 defense of suffocating the opposing passing game with their amazing secondary and letting Calais Campbell snuff out the run game. To a large extent this worked, but it’s a short term solution.
They won’t be able to take the next step unless they can get a consistent pass rush from the edges and force opposing offenses into making mistakes. And while they got 8 sacks from Dwight Freeney, he’s going to be 36 next season and they need more than the 5 sacks that they got from Markus Golden and Lamarr Woodley.
Three names to consider: Noah Spence(day 2 in the draft), Yannick Ngakoue(day 2 of the draft), Alex McCalister(day 3 of the draft).
Defensive end. As mentioned above, the Cardinals’ defense works because Calais Campbell is a force against the run. He’s a force against the pass also. In short, he’s just a force.
But he’s not enough and being overdependent on one player can have disadvantages. The Panthers let Campbell overplay their runs and shot the gaps he left in the NFC title game. So, the Cards not only need an edge rusher, they need more talent at end to augment Campbell and fix the imbalance in how they depend on him.
They don’t need to find an End who is a contrast with Campbell, they need to find quality. A player who’s a physical presence and demands blocking attention or a penetrator who teams have to move some help towards.
Three names to consider: Shawn Oakman(day 2 of the draft), Carl Nassib(day 2 of the draft), Jared Crick(free agency).
Tight End. The Cards have an amazing wide receiver corps. They have a near perfect blend of experience, talent, size and speed. And this one of the major reasons why they had the #1 offense in the league in terms of yardage.
They are lacking at the tight end spot. Troy Niklas is the starter and while he’s a decent blocker, he’ll never give a defensive coordinator any fits.
What they need is someone who doesn’t have to see 50 targets a season, but inside the red zone and on 3rd downs he can create a mismatch when teams overload to stop their wideouts.
Three names to consider: Jake McGee(day 3 of the draft), Sean Price(day 3 of the draft), Kyle Carter(day 3 of the draft).
Next: Seattle Seahawks