Robbie Caldwell Helps Cardinals Nab Simmons
When Arizona selected Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons with the eighth overall pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night, Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, who has been evaluating talent for more than two decades, and has now been involved in 22 drafts, said a contributing fact to the surprise pick was an inside connection to Clemson.
"I do (think he can play right away)," Keim said. "Fortunately, my offensive line coach in college was Robbie Caldwell, so I feel like I had great intel on the player and a lot of great information from the program. The thing that really excites me is the character and the player match."
After it was all said and done however, the Cardinals got their guy. A guy that Keim thinks can come in and help his team from day number one, and that guy can be summed up in a single word.
"The one word I could say is, 'Wow,'" Keim said on the teams digital special, the "Cardinals Draft Connection."
He came away overly impressed with the versatile player out of Clemson.
"As an evaluator, a lot of times what you'll do is, you'll take a snap-shot of the players that you've looked at over the years," Keim said. "And you try to make comparisons, and this is one of the most unique players I have ever evaluated."
After finishing dead last in total defense in 2019, allowing more than 400 yards per game, Keim was intent on making some upgrades on that side of the ball, and says they now have a player that he thinks can do it all.
"The length, the athleticism," Keim said. "The cover-ability in space. A guy that is essentially 6'4" and 238 pounds and ran a 4.39 at the Combine. Got 100 tackles and eight sacks. He plays the deep middle, he plays in the box, and blitzes. There's very little this guy can't do."
Most considered Simmons to be the most dynamic defensive player in this years draft and the Cardinals are ecstatic to get such a speedy, playmaker that can lend immediate help in an area of such need.
"We vowed to fix this defense," Keim said. "To make sure that we got playmakers. Guys that could cover ground. Guys who could run. To be able to add a player with this guys capabilities is very exciting for us."
While Keim was fairly confident Simmons would still be there at number eight, that doesn't mean there weren't some nervous moments as he watched things unfold.
"That nervous anticipation you get, it is sort of hard to duplicate," Keim said. "But an exciting part of the job. There's nothing that replicates being a player and walking out of the tunnel, but I can tell you going through about four or five picks, waiting to draft a player like Isaiah Simmons, that gets pretty close. Just the heart rate, the excitement."
