Four Verts, post-NFL Draft: Cardinals' moves may cast new light on Kyler Murray, and enough with the Ty Simpson pick PR

Dysfunction or overzealous hubris is easy to spot when your own team is guilty of it, and the Cardinals have a blinking beacon over theirs. In fact, their process this offseason puts Kyler Murray’s run in Arizona, which bafflingly ended in an outright release, into somewhat of a new light. Considering how poorly the organization has been run recently, perhaps this move to the Vikings can provide the competence Murray has been missing.

This isn’t to say the Vikings have been perfect because they clearly have not. Between the complete failure of the J.J. McCarthy selection and the timing of firing former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, they’ve shown some warts of their own. However, they’re not in the same stratosphere as a franchise where Arizona has resided. This is a team that was still sturdy enough to post a winning season last year with some of the worst quarterback play in the league, particularly in the late season between McCarthy and undrafted rookie Max Brosmer. Hell, they beat Detroit with three (3) passing yards on Christmas. That suggests the rest of the team combined with the coaching staff can provide a fairly substantial baseline level of competence that hasn’t consistently existed in Arizona since Bruce Arians left nearly a decade ago. They’ve had flashes, but overall they’ve continued to be lapped by their NFC West rivals.

From eating dead money on Murray’s contract without receiving any draft pick compensation to their head-scratching moves during the draft, it’s been a reminder that the Cardinals’ struggles over the past few seasons are not all the fault of Murray. Like the team he’s joining, Murray certainly has not been perfect either. There are constant rumbles about his likability within the building and his smaller stature as a quarterback puts an inescapable, natural ceiling on some of the issues within his game. Last year was a poor season from Murray, but taking in the totality of his career, it was an outlier. Murray ranked ninth in ESPN’s QBR metric in 2024 and has largely been an effective quarterback throughout his career.

That’s really all the Vikings are looking for right now, and they were able to get it on the cheap due to Murray’s release. There will be bumpy moments along the way because neither of these entities are without their flaws, but the Cardinals don’t seem to be moving in a coherent manner right now. Perhaps this is an overanalysis of a new era, but Murray’s move to the Vikings will give an interesting, semi-controlled study on just how bad this Cardinals ownership group really is.

Rams! Ty Simpson! Enough! Stop!

This is not meant to rehash the Rams’ pick of Ty Simpson. Agree with it, disagree with it (cough), it’s done. This is the direction they chose to go, and there’s no going back. But the full-on assault from the Rams and the reporters that they’re close to in defense of the pick was just way, way too much. Of course, this all started with Sean McVay notably looking unhappy on draft night, but proceeded to go way over the top because the primary forces of negativity here was … the Rams.

They did eventually put their faces on pro-Ty Simpson statements during the third day of the draft when McVay hijacked ESPN’s broadcast to set the record straight that he did actually like the Simpson pick and was in favor of it from the jump. This caused the broadcast to miss several picks while McVay and Peter Schrager ensured the masses that the Rams were in fact in alignment on the Simpson pick. Was this really necessary? The early portions of Day 3 still has plenty of players that fans of the NFL and college are waiting to see drafted and talked about by the broadcast. A wide-smiling McVay talking about a player that was drafted two days prior wasn’t a great use of time, and it was where the story really crossed into cringe territory.

However, we weren’t done there. A huge piece of the Simpson fallout was the controversy on whether or not McVay had actually met with Simpson prior to the draft. While at first it looked like the answer was no, Simpson recently said he had a secret meeting with the Rams and McVay that he kept quiet in respect of the Rams’ wishes. This has no bearing on how the Simpson-Rams era will go, but it feels bizarre that so much time has been spent on whether or not the Rams like him to the point McVay needed to interrupt the draft broadcast and Simpson himself spoke on it.

If things go according to the Rams’ plans, this pick won’t even pay dividends for years to come. They have no plans to move on from MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford and still remain interested in extending his contract. This is discourse for the sake of discourse when there are actually things happening! We must stay strong and reject the gravitational pull of the quarterbacks. This was strung out way too far.

Vikings took a good risk in drafting Caleb Banks

The Vikings have had a strong defense since Brian Flores took over the play-calling duties, posting elite or near elite numbers with a unit that isn’t exactly filled with stars. That lack of high-end talent has been a problem for them at times, but Flores’ meticulous level of game-planning has been able to cover up a lot.

Even with Flores pulling the strings, the Vikings clearly needed an infusion of legitimate young talent on their defense, particularly along the defensive line after losing both Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave.

Enter Caleb Banks, who played three games at Florida last year and finished with two solo tackles and one tackle for loss — and it was absolutely the right pick for them to make. Despite the glaring statistical profile, Banks is a reasonable upside risk in the first round, especially in a draft like this year.

Banks’ production is not from a lack of understanding his role within Florida’s defense or even a lack of skill in terms of engaging offensive linemen and disengaging. He does both of those things at an extremely high level and his elite athleticism at 6-foot-6, 330 pounds routinely shows on the field. The one thing that he just really struggles with is tackling. It borders on funny how often he just can’t bring the ballcarrier down after making incredible moves to blow up the offensive line. However, if any defensive staff can figure out how to fix his coordination in that respect, it’s this one in Minnesota. They’ve turned players a lot less talented than Banks into capable defenders within that defense, so it’s fair for them to think that they can get back to the basics here and get Banks to finish his plays in the backfield.

What’s actually risky here is the foot problem that Banks has been dealing with this offseason. He still had an outrageous combine workout on his broken foot, which only confirms the otherworldly athleticism that he possesses. However, big guys with foot problems aren’t always guys who can stay on the field. Considering the injury he suffered during the combine was the same broken bone he suffered in August prior to the season, it’s fair to be concerned about how big of a problem this is going to be for Banks moving forward.

Still, the potential payoff here is so high that it’s a logical pick for the Vikings. He can legitimately be one of the best defensive tackles in the league with some good coaching, provided he can stay healthy. The Vikings gave themselves a bit of insurance by taking Iowa State defensive tackle Dominique Orange later in the draft, who also has a chance to be a capable player in the NFL. They understood the risks, and now it’s on a little luck and the tutelage of Flores’ staff to get the most out of him.

Falcons taking Avieon Terrell was the coolest moment of the draft

There are so few moments in professional sports where family members get to play on the same team and it doesn’t feel contrived. People often roll their eyes at instances like Bronny James getting drafted to the Lakers or Giannis Antetokounmpo stocking the Bucks’ bench with his brothers, but every once in a while talent and circumstance creates a moment where a sensible move is to actually reunite the family. That’s exactly what happened when the Falcons had cornerback Avieon Terrell, younger brother of their star cornerback A.J., fall into their laps with the 48th pick in last week’s draft.

The younger Terrell was viewed as a potential first-round pick in this year’s draft, but a shaky offseason process combined with a smaller frame saw him fall to the second round of the draft. He landed in possibly the coolest spot for him: with a team that has desperately needed a CB2 across from his older brother for several seasons now. It gives the Falcons a reasonable chance to plug a hole that has really hurt the team since Desmond Trufant and Roebrt Alford moved on, and it’s a in incredibly rare, wholesome moment that was immediately felt by everyone.

The dap that the Terrell brothers gave each other after Avieon got off the phone with the Falcons registered on the Richter scale and their visible emotion was palpable. It’s so rare to get a moment like this that makes logistical sense. It was a very cool first draft pick for the Matt Ryan regime and a for team that hasn’t had many cool moments in recent years. Hopefully for them (AND ME!) this works out for the long haul and we get those two playing strong football over the next few seasons.