It seems as if the Cardinals organization thinks they are settled at the wide receiver position though reports say they are still looking throughout free agency.. After news showed they were interested in Braylon Edwards and Malcom Floyd, both players signed with other teams. From what I'm hearing, despite the Cardinals offering a better contract, Bryalon decided to go to the 49ers where he could potentially be a number one receiver in hopes of upping his value for next years free agency period. While it's all speculation, I think this is a bad move by Braylon but only time will tell.
With both Braylon and Floyd off the market, the next tier of receivers that come into play are guys like Steve Smith of the Giants and Jericho Cotchery of the Jets. While a healthy Steve Smith would be a great number 2 for this team, I just don't think we can rely on him being able to stay on the field. After a breakout 2009-2010 campaign where he caught 107 balls for 1200 yards and 7 touchdowns, he was only able to manage to stay on the field for 9 games last year. Not only did he tear his pectoral muscle missing four games, he came back and immediately tore knee cartilage which required microfracture surgery. Granted, the healing time and success rate from injuries like these have drastically increased but I am still not sure if I want to have him as our number 2 going into the season. The major upside is we could get a potential 100 catch season from a guy who won't demand a lot of money due to his injury.
The next wide receiver on the list would be Jericho Cotchery who is also coming off surgery(herniated disc). While I like Cotchery, my main concern is that he is just a more proven version of what we already have in Andre Roberts. I would prefer a bigger target opposite of Fitz than six foot tall Cotchery so Roberts/Doucet can be in the slot which I think they'll be more effective from. One of the upsides from Cotchery is he is really tough, as you can see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzr1bTPxDzk where he tears his groin mid route, yet still finds a way to make a diving catch on a crucial third down in overtime. While he would be nice to have here, I don't think he's a game changer, and rumors are that he failed his physical in New York which would not be a good sign.
Let's take a look at the guys who are currently on our roster starting with Early Doucet. Early has been here for three years and has made relatively zero noise in the regular season. Granted he looked beastly in the playoff game versus the Packers, but besides that he has been a relative no show(literally, he can't stay on the field long enough for me to find him). All joking aside, you can never plan for injuries and sometimes it can be a fluke, but this team can't wait around forever to see if this guy can stay healthy. I think it is evident that the organization feels this way as well due to all of the undrafted rookies we have signed(and kept) as well as late round pick DeMarco Sampson. This is a make or break year for Doucet, but unfortunately I don't want my #2 receiver to be in a make or break year, I want someone more solid.
Andre Roberts is the next choice. A surprise 3rd round pick out of the Citadel last year, Andre Roberts struggled in his first camp and didn't have a very impressive rookie campaign(which isn't saying much due to our horribly inept Quarter back play). I'm really torn on how to feel about this guy, his numbers weren't impressive but all I hear people say is how he really started to come on in the last half of the season but I think they just look at the numbers and don't really take into account the situations. In the last 6 games of the season Roberts caught 13 passes for 150 yards and 1 touchdown. Now I know what you're saying, "what do you expect from a number 3 receiver with a horrible QB throwing to him?" which is partially true but let's look at where the majority of those stats came from. Out of those 13 catches, 9 of them came in the last two games. Out of those 150 yards 133 of them came in the last two games as well as the touchdown coming in the second to last game against Dallas. Let's not forget that the touchdown came off of a 70 yard touchdown from Skelton, in which his defender fell down leaving Roberts free and clear to make the catch and run for the touchdown. So far in training camp, reports are Roberts has been impressive and we shouldn't be surprised if he actually earns the number 2 spot. I hope that's true and we desperately need him to become a legitimate threat, I'm just concerned going into the season with a second year player as our number 2 receiver. He will not demand any significant threat opposite of Fitzgerald at the start of the season until he proves otherwise.
Lastly, I don't think Chansi Stuckey has a shot to win the number 2 role. He's been relatively unimpressive in his career thus far and he doesn't have the size or speed to demand coverage. Unless Stephen Williams can duplicate his performance in last years pre-season, and carry it over into the regular season, it's hard to be confident in him. DeMarco Sampson has been impressive in camp with nice hands and great route running but again he's a rookie(albeit a 25 year old rookie) and it's the same issue with a lot of the other guys we have now. It's hard to go into the season with an unknown, unproven player as your second receiver.
Finally, I will just say this about the media/fan rumors about the possibility of Randy Moss coming here. I don't think it's likely as we're a rebuilding/up and coming team. We won't want to give him a long term contract and we are an organization who will not put up with a lot of the baggage Moss has. While we have no idea how effective he would be, I don't think it's likely that he would choose to come here.
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