Early and late-round options for Arizona Cardinals for D-line
Early and late-round options for Arizona Cardinals for D-line PFF believes the Cardinals' biggest need in the draft is still the defensive line and gives options early and late in the draft.
Despite bolstering their defensive line in the offseason with the addition of Dalvin Tomlinson and the return of L.J. Collier, combined with the return from injuries of Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols, one could say the Arizona Cardinals' biggest need is still up front on defense.
They will probably still address the defensive line in the draft, as the defensive line class is believed to be both good and deep.
PFF believes the Cardinals' greatest need is still the defensive interior and gave both an early-round and a late-round option for the draft.
Early round option: Ole Miss DT Walter Nolen
Nolen is 6-foot-4 and 296 pounds. He has athleticism but is not a freak. He has pass-rushing upside as well. He had 6.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss last season.
Is he better than Michigan's Kenneth Grant or Oregon's Derrick Harmon? He isn't as immediately impactful as a run defender as Grant but is a more accomplished pass rusher.
And while the production is there, some have questioned his character, so maybe that would take him of the Cardinals' board.
Late-round option: Ole Miss DT J.J. Pegues
Pegues is an inch shorter than his teammate Nolen but is 309 pounds and had as many tackles for loss as Nolen. He had 3.5 sacks. The later-round option might be a little more ideal because with the defensive line rotation the Cardinals already have, it won't feel disappointing to have a later-round pick playing in a rotation.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chipboard and carpet: refugee cricket tournament brings a moment of happiness
A BBQ held to thank Project Front Foot for the kit they supplied to Caen Cricket Club Festival Day 2024. An event organised for refugees to play cricket. A BBQ held to thank Project Front Foot for the kit they supplied to Caen Cricket Club Festival Day 2024. An event organised for refugees to play cricket. Photograph: Supplied Next week in Caen, at a baseball practice ground, on a pitch made out of two pieces of chipboard with some carpet stapled on top, a cricket tournament will unroll. Nine teams of refugees, mostly based in Normandy, will fight it out over two days in a series of round-robin T5 tape-ballgames. The battles will be fierce, the bowling often fast, with added jeopardy if the ball hits the not-very-well-disguised join between the two bits of chipboard. Chris Drew, a Guardian reader who lives locally, will umpire. Advertisement 'You watch county cricket, and there is time,' he says via video call from France. 'Time is one thing that you don't have here. It is hit, it is whack, it is run, it is bowl – it is quite something. When they whack the ball, it stays whacked. There are no defensive shots. 'It's all about having a good time. People being together who want to be together because we love the game. They leave everything else at the door. I never ask anyone where they come from or what their status is – it's just about bringing a moment of happiness.' In 2023, the tournament's first year, it was sponsored by a kebab shop with free kebabs all round. This year Drew will make Welsh cakes and bara brith and his wife cucumber sandwiches. 'Somebody will bring a salad and somebody will bring a chicken – it's a communal thing.' The community spirit extends further. Teams do not yet know whether they will qualify for the knockout matches on the second day so players will bring tents, and many will camp in local gardens. 'It's all about mucking in,' says Drew. But there are limits. The bowlers will only run in from one end of the ground, so the houses lining one side of the boundary do not get peppered with unfamiliar flying objects. Advertisement That the players have equipment at all is largely down to another group of volunteers. Project Front Foot (PFF) are a registered charity that collects spare kits from clubs and redistributes it to refugee groups. For the first 10 years of its inception, PFF mostly worked in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, providing equipment for the children living there. They changed tack shortly before Covid to provide for those closer to home – to Germany, where cricket clubs sprung up overnight with the arrival of 1.5m refugees, to France, to Portugal, to Lebanon and to London. It is a labour of love for the project leader Vic Mills and his team. In September they collect from clubs who have something to donate (often because of a change of sponsor), take three or four days going through it all, number it for customs – who post-Brexit need everything individually labelled – and store it in volunteer Tim Gill's double garage until March. Then they unpack it all again, refill the spread sheet, stock the van with the right equipment for the right clubs, and get on the road in time for the beginning of the northern hemisphere cricket season. This year there were 48 bags and 13 boxes of clothing and equipment, plus a dozen bin liners of sportswear – over 2000 items. They included: 48 bats, 30 wicket sets, 86 pairs of pads, 123 pairs of batting gloves, 15 pairs of wicket keeping gloves, 35 helmets and 74 caps and sun hats. 'We've moved up to the largest Transit that the boys feel confident enough driving,' says Mills. 'Many of the county clubs have been extremely generous – with particular thanks to Steve Archer and the Yorkshire Cricket Board, and the Lancashire Foundation. Advertisement 'These guys we're delivering to have nothing, they haven't got much money or practise kit, we're finding a home for equipment that would otherwise go to the charity shop or to landfill. With a lot of projects, very rarely does all the money allocated get to where it is needed; we can reassure people that we can find a home for pretty much everything.' On 4 April, the PFF van arrived in Caen and some of the bags were unloaded into another friendly garage, this time belonging to Drew, before a celebratory barbecue for players and volunteers at the house of Caen CC's president, Julia. '[PFF] provide us with bats, with pants, with helmets, with jock straps, with everything you could want,' says Drew. 'They, like Julia, who is absolutely fantastic, are heroes for providing something for the mental health of these lads.' Have they had any feedback about the tournament three years in? 'The teams want to come back, which I take as a positive sign. There's a demand, there's an enjoyment and we're growing. I'm not saying everything's perfect. It's like every cricket club. Not everybody loves everybody all the time. Advertisement 'But if you come along to the events, you respect everyone else there. The fair play, the spirit of cricket, and that goes outside the bounds of the cricket pitch as well.' In the current wild and fragmented landscape, there is something comforting in the cricket's ability to still bring hope and community, as well as grasping around for yet more dollar bills. If you would like to donate to, or are a club with refugee cricketers who would like a kit donation from Project Front Foot please contact them on projectfrontfoot@ Quote of the week 'Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country' – Kashyap Prajapati telling Cricinfo that neither he, nor any of the other Oman players, have been paid their prize money for last year's men's T20 World Cup. Trophy title tribulations The announcement of the shiny new Anderson-Tendulkar trophy to mark the Test series between England and India's men's teams has brought a mix of reactions. No one seemed too upset about the retirement of India's Anthony de Mello Trophy, named after a founding father of the BCCI, but the disappearance of the Pataudi Trophy caused some dismay. The Pataudi family, in particular the former Indian captains Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and his son Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi, have long links with both countries. Iftikhar Ali Khan was the only man to play cricket for England and India; Tiger was India's youngest captain, a wolfish fielder, and someone able to persuade his charges to put aside regional rivalries. As Sambit Bal wrote: 'he led Indian cricket out of its morass of defeatism and instilled in his fellow cricketers a belief that winning was possible.' Advertisement So if you felt a pang of nostalgia while looking at a black and white photo of Tiger, I am with you. But the Pataudi family do not lack trinkets. They were the rulers of the Pataudi state until 1949 – and collected a privy purse for a while longer. Tiger was coached by Frank Woolley at a Hertfordshire prep school, packed off to Winchester, read Arabic and French at Balliol college, Oxford. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Jimmy Anderson came from more ordinary backgrounds. Anderson is England's greatest bowler; Tendulkar was a little genius – an Indian obsession who, for a few years, was the best batsman in the world. Already, though, both are fading into the distance. Anderson turns his arm over for Lancashire in the Blast; Tendulkar is long retired, even his heir Virat Kohli has stepped away from Test cricket. The Anderson-Tendulkar trophy keeps their names alive for the next generation – but only until they, like the Pataudis, become irrelevant and the trophy is renamed again. Either way, it would be nice to see the boards come up for a name for the upcoming contest between the women's teams too – and even better to have, as for the multi-format Ashes, a Test match nailed into the schedule. Memory lane West Indies playing England presently takes the memory back to happier times for the tourists who, in 1984, played three one-day internationals and five Tests here. England were beaten 2–1 in the ODI series, and whitewashed 5–0 in the Test series with one of the most memorable moments coming at Old Trafford in the first ODI when Viv Richards scored 189 runs. By the end of the fifth Test the West Indies had won eight Tests in a row and would go on to set the then-record of 11 consecutive wins. Still want more? Pat Cummins in riveting conversation with Donald McRae, taking in leading Australia against South Africa and not getting too big for his boots – but he plays a dead bat regarding that Jonny Bairstow dismissal. Advertisement And here's Mr McRae chatting to South Africa's Temba Bavuma, on his path from a township childhood to the World Test Championship final. Martin Pegan on where that final will be won and lost. And Daniel Gallan on South Africa hoping to shake off their tag of 'chokers'. Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont smashed England to ODI series victory over West Indies … … while Tom Banton sealed men's T20 glory for Harry Brook's side. Barney Ronay on modern man Jacob Bethell and old-school Shoaib Bashir. And Northants and Somerset are still in winning form in the T20 Blast – this and more in Gary Naylor's 99.94 cricket blog. Contact The Spin … … by writing to Tanya. In? To subscribe to The Spin, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cardinals aim to end slide in matchup with the Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays (37-30, second in the AL East) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (36-31, second in the NL Central) St. Louis; Wednesday, 2:15 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Blue Jays: Eric Lauer (2-1, 2.08 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 24 strikeouts); Cardinals: Matthew Liberatore (3-5, 3.82 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 58 strikeouts) Advertisement BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Cardinals -139, Blue Jays +117; over/under is 8 1/2 runs BOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals head into a matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays as losers of three straight games. St. Louis is 22-13 in home games and 36-31 overall. Cardinals hitters have a collective .396 slugging percentage to rank sixth in the NL. Toronto has a 15-17 record on the road and a 37-30 record overall. The Blue Jays have gone 15-7 in games when they did not allow a home run. Wednesday's game is the third time these teams meet this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Brendan Donovan leads the Cardinals with a .310 batting average, and has 20 doubles, four home runs, 22 walks and 26 RBIs. Willson Contreras is 12 for 39 with two home runs and 13 RBIs over the last 10 games. Advertisement Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has 12 doubles and eight home runs for the Blue Jays. Alejandro Kirk is 19 for 40 with four doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs over the last 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 4-6, .243 batting average, 4.65 ERA, outscored by nine runs Blue Jays: 8-2, .281 batting average, 4.70 ERA, outscored opponents by 11 runs INJURIES: Cardinals: Brendan Donovan: day-to-day (toe), Jordan Walker: 10-Day IL (wrist), Zack Thompson: 60-Day IL (lat) Blue Jays: Nathan Lukes: day-to-day (neck), Daulton Varsho: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Anthony Santander: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Yimi Garcia: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Max Scherzer: 60-Day IL (thumb), Ryan Burr: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nick Sandlin: 15-Day IL (back), Alek Manoah: 60-Day IL (elbow), Angel Bastardo: 60-Day IL (elbow) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Fox Sports
2 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Cardinals aim to end slide in matchup with the Blue Jays
Associated Press Toronto Blue Jays (37-30, second in the AL East) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (36-31, second in the NL Central) St. Louis; Wednesday, 2:15 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Blue Jays: Eric Lauer (2-1, 2.08 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 24 strikeouts); Cardinals: Matthew Liberatore (3-5, 3.82 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 58 strikeouts) BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Cardinals -139, Blue Jays +117; over/under is 8 1/2 runs BOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals head into a matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays as losers of three straight games. St. Louis is 22-13 in home games and 36-31 overall. Cardinals hitters have a collective .396 slugging percentage to rank sixth in the NL. Toronto has a 15-17 record on the road and a 37-30 record overall. The Blue Jays have gone 15-7 in games when they did not allow a home run. Wednesday's game is the third time these teams meet this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Brendan Donovan leads the Cardinals with a .310 batting average, and has 20 doubles, four home runs, 22 walks and 26 RBIs. Willson Contreras is 12 for 39 with two home runs and 13 RBIs over the last 10 games. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has 12 doubles and eight home runs for the Blue Jays. Alejandro Kirk is 19 for 40 with four doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs over the last 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 4-6, .243 batting average, 4.65 ERA, outscored by nine runs Blue Jays: 8-2, .281 batting average, 4.70 ERA, outscored opponents by 11 runs INJURIES: Cardinals: Brendan Donovan: day-to-day (toe), Jordan Walker: 10-Day IL (wrist), Zack Thompson: 60-Day IL (lat) Blue Jays: Nathan Lukes: day-to-day (neck), Daulton Varsho: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Anthony Santander: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Yimi Garcia: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Max Scherzer: 60-Day IL (thumb), Ryan Burr: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nick Sandlin: 15-Day IL (back), Alek Manoah: 60-Day IL (elbow), Angel Bastardo: 60-Day IL (elbow) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. recommended
