3 reasons why next two drafts are vital for Arizona Cardinals

Every draft is important to an NFL team. A successful one replenishes talent at modest prices and provides direction for the future. A poor one not only has an impact on the upcoming season but resonates for years as a team tries to compensate via other avenues, such as free agency, trades and waiver claims.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the next two drafts are especially vital for the Cardinals if they are going to sustain success whenever Carson Palmer, receiver Larry Fitzgerald and coach Bruce Arians call it a career.

There are three reasons the team’s fortunes largely will be determined by how it uses draft picks later this month and in 2018.

Finding a quarterback

This is the most important and most obvious reason. Palmer, 37, is under contract through 2018, but he took about a month after last season to decide to play again this year. That suggests he was closer to retirement than many of us thought.

Since last season ended, General Manager Steve Keim and Arians have said several times they would like to find Palmer’s heir apparent.

Drafting one is the most obvious way, and it’s no surprise the Cardinals have had private meetings and workouts with most of the top quarterbacks in this draft.

The tricky part is determining whether one is worth taking with the 13th overall pick, when a player at any another position could help the Cardinals this season.

“Every year you would like to draft a quarterback,” Arians said at the NFL’s annual meeting last month. “We’ve had two with a name on a card, ready to roll, only to have him go a pick or two ahead of us the last two years.

RELATED: Cards have had success with undrafted QBs

“You don’t want to reach. You have them set on your board where you want to take that quarterback. If he falls to you, take him. But don’t reach. If you have one (ranked) in the fourth round, don’t take him in the third round. That’s when you screw up your board, and you’re probably putting him in a position where he doesn’t belong.”

Since moving to Arizona in 1988, the Cardinals have used just two first-round picks to obtain a quarterback. In 2006, they drafted Matt Leinart 10th overall, and in 1989, the selected Timm Rosenbach in the supplemental draft, forfeiting their 1990 first-round selection.

With Arians and his staff, the Cardinals are better positioned than ever to identify and draft a quarterback. Arians has a great affinity for them and has worked with great ones, including Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

Tom Moore, the Cardinals assistant head coach, is entering his 39th NFL season – all of them as an offensive assistant.

Current quarterbacks coach Byron Leftwich played the position for nine NFL seasons, and running backs coach Freddie Kitchens worked with Cardinals quarterbacks the past four seasons.

If that group doesn’t know what an NFL quarterback looks like, then no one does.

2017: NFL mock draft: Mac’s third edition

An old roster

The Cardinals are old at a handful of positions, partly because those old guys still produce and partly by design.

Palmer turns 38 in December. Fitzgerald will be 34 when the season starts. Inside linebacker Karlos Dansby turns 36 in November, and safety Antoine Bethea will be 33 in July.

At those positions, the Cardinals need players with more favorable expiration dates.

Yet, the Cardinals had age in mind when they signed Dansby and Bethea in free agency last month. Arians and Keim wanted stronger leadership on defense and feel confident players such as Dansby, Bethea and defensive tackle Frostee Rucker, who turns 34 in September, will provide it.

MORE: Arizona’s first round picks in four major sports

Chances are they will, if they stay healthy. They are not, however, the long-term answers at their positions.

Those players are likely to come in the next two drafts, and they should benefit from being around their elders.

Part of an older player’s duties is mentoring the young, and the Cardinals think rookies joining the team over the next year or two, will be learning from veterans who know how to prepare, to play and to properly conduct themselves off the field.

Fitzgerald has invited rookies to stay at his home over the spring and summer for years. In his second stint with the team in 2013, Dansby was the alpha male on a good defense. Rucker leads with quiet authority and is one of the more popular players on the team. Bethea has a similar reputation, and Palmer is fastidious in his preparation, which will be invaluable to a young quarterback willing to listen.

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Number of selections

A team that loses more free agents than it signs is eligible to receive compensatory picks in the following year’s draft.

The Cardinals have an extra fifth-rounder this year and should receive a bounty of extra selections in the 2018 draft.

Nick Korte of overthecap.com, who monitors such things, has the Cardinals with four additional picks in the 2018 draft: one third-rounder, one fourth and two sixths.

That could change based on events of 2017. For instance, Korte points out that he has the Cardinals receiving a sixth-round pick for cornerback Marcus Cooper, who signed with the Bears, but that could become a fifth-round pick depending upon Cooper’s playing time and performance.

Those additional picks could mean additional young, reasonably priced players, and also will give Keim flexibility to move around in the next two drafts to select coveted players.

“This is going to be a really fun draft,” Arians said. “I think there is going to be a lot of action all the way around.”