INDIANAPOLIS – David Bailey shrugged his shoulders at the notion he could be a top three pick in the NFL Draft this April.
"To go top three, top two, top 10, first two rounds, it doesn't really matter," the edge rusher from Texas Tech said Wednesday. "It's just a super cool opportunity."
It may not matter to Bailey. But it matters to the NFL in a draft with a dearth of high-end quarterbacks, and it matters to the Cardinals, who have a top three pick and, as most teams do, a need for another premier pass rusher.
The choice for the Cardinals may come down to an offensive tackle – Utah's Spencer Fano and Miami's Francis Maligoa – or an edge rusher. If it's the latter, it interesting, since the top three prospects – Bailey, Miami's Rueben Bain Jr., Ohio State's Arvell Reese – are so disparate.
"The quarterback thing is not going to be solved there," NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. "I don't know if there is a wrong answer between a tackle and an edge rusher. I think the value of where they are picking points to the edge rushers."
The Cardinals signed Josh Sweat as a free agent last season and he delivered 12 sacks. But the other edge rushers combined for only 5½ sacks and the team was frequently seeking more pressure.
In a league where the best teams have waves of players that can pressure – especially in their own division – adding a playmaker makes sense
"There was some good, there was some bad, that's the same thing you can say for any of our guys," GM Monti Ossenfort said. "Josh was great. Josh was as advertised. He came in and was able to disrupt the quarterback on the edge. All of our players would say there are things we left out there, and it's our job to help them develop in situations for them to succeed. That's true for edge and all our positions."
There are a couple of decisions that have to be made. The Athletic's draft analyst, Dane Brugler, has 16 edge players in his top 100 prospects, and said he had looked at trying to squeeze in another four or five. That means there will options in the second and third rounds for the Cardinals if they want to wait.