Imagine the confusion and intrigue when that headline showed up locally in the Phoenix area a few weeks ago.
Who was revealing secret info about last year's conclave now?
The story, however, was nowhere near the common conspiracy theories one may find on the web (unless you enjoy the NFL draft):
Lutui was at the top of our board when we picked him in Round 2. Leonard Pope was second on our board (behind Ko Simpson) when we picked him in Round 3. (Actually, Pope was considered a late-1st to high-2nd round pick by many experts). We love this pick. We watched Pope at the Combine and were impressed with his hands - he caught the ball like a WR despite being a 260 pounder. And he has room to add muscle to that 6-7 frame. The Cards had UDFA's themselves to respectability by adding Eric Edwards, Adam Bergen and Jay Stokes to their TE corps, but they didn't have a really legitimate high-end tight end on their roster. Pope will give Warner and Leinart a huge target in the red zone - an area that many observers felt was the reason why a team ranked 10th in both offense and defense failed to make the playoffs. He does tend to block off a high base (which is understandable for someone so tall), but we believe Keith Rowan and his coaches will teach him the correct techniques and then - look out! In our opinion, this was a huge pickup.
courtesy of azcardinals.com
