The most important position in football -- and all of sports, really -- is quarterback. Either you have one or you don't, and if you don't, the leash on employment gets pretty short pretty quick.
The Cardinals understand they are a win-now team with a small window for Carson Palmer playing football, especially given how close he was to retiring this offseason. It was the expectation they would draft a quarterback in the 2017 NFL Draft, but ultimately they came away without getting one.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim is perfectly fine with that, and he told Adam Schein on SiriusXM's Mad Dog Sports Radio on Tuesday (via NFL.com) that he is not in the business of "forcing" picks where they don't fit.
What's interesting is how he frames the discussion of potentially taking a quarterback in this draft. Asked by Schein how the Cardinals would have handled the draft if Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson -- "the big three" -- were available, Keim points out that Reddick was their "highest-graded player."
"We did our due diligence on all three of those guys," Keim said. "But at the end of the day Haason Reddick was our highest-graded player on the board. The one thing I've been adamant about since I've become general manager here is not forcing that pick.
"There's no doubt that it's a quarterback-driven league and you have to identify a young quarterback for our future. But at the same time, I think you can get in trouble by forcing that pick. And if your instinct and your gut doesn't tell you this is the guy, it has a chance of setting you back three or four years."
If I could insert a "PREACH" emoji here I would. Or whatever the kids say to indicate that something is smart. The Cardinals need a quarterback for the future. Keim has admitted as much and said that worrying about the position is something that he thinks about regularly. But this "not forcing it" business is also exactly what he's been preaching for several months.
And it's something he'll keep worrying about, even after the draft is over. But he's just going to work on finding different avenues to make the acquisition happen, whether it's in the draft, via free agency or via a trade.
"There's no doubt we have to identify one. Looking at the future, you keep an eye on next year's draft. You have an idea of the four or five guys who can help us," Keim said. "You also look into free agency, which there are going to be a few quarterbacks available. There are also going to be some trade options. I think there will be a quarterback of the future out there for us to attain, but at the same time there is a present that we have to take care of. And guys like Larry [Fitzgerald] and Carson [Palmer] deserve the best."
There isn't a specific path on how to win in football. Teams win in very different ways all the time. And if you're the Cardinals, you have to balance trying to acquire the quarterback of the future with making sure that the current crop of guys, including Larry Fitzgerald and Carson Palmer, still have an opportunity to win.
It's pretty clear from the Cardinals draft decisions that they view this as a team that can win now, and decided to bail on any plans for the long-term future and instead focused on adding playmakers who help the team now. On the other hand, adding the best possible football players to the roster is the easiest way to ensure the team won't be terrible.
