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On the latest stop of Peter King’s training camp tour for MMQB.com, he stopped in Glendale, Arizona, to visit with the Cardinals. In a conversation with general manager Steve Keim, King gleaned this nugget of information: Keim regrets not pushing the Cardinals to draft Russell Wilson.
"Look, I’m from North Carolina State," Keim told MMQB.com. "I study all the guys out of there hard. But I just didn’t think there was a good comp for Russell Wilson, and I was wrong. When I think back now, it was a chickens--- call by me. I didn’t have the balls to take Russell Wilson."
When it came down to it in 2012, picking Wilson wasn’t as cut and dried as them just deciding to pass on him. As King pointed out, the Cardinals traded their second-round pick in 2012 to the Philadelphia Eagles as part of a deal to acquire Kevin Kolb. That eliminated the Cards' opportunity to draft Wilson in the second round, unless they made a deal. Wilson went to Seattle in the third round, and five picks later, the Cardinals drafted cornerback Jamell Fleming, who was cut in 2013.
So what did the Cardinals miss out on? In 2012, Wilson’s rookie year, the Cardinals used four starting quarterbacks who combined for five wins, 3,044 passing yards and 10 touchdown passes. Wilson had 11 wins, 3,118 passing yards and 26 touchdown passes.
Keim explained to King that when he was evaluating Wilson, he couldn’t find any comparable quarterbacks to measure Wilson. Neither could anyone else, though.
"But like John Schneider said to Pete Carroll before the draft, 'Aside from his height, what’s wrong with him?' Nothing," Keim told King.
