Now that the NFL draft has concluded, we can rate the selections teams have made in terms of value. Some players are perceived as reaches who could have been selected later, while others were a great value — or even steals.
Draft Wire managing editor Luke Easterling shared the steal of each team’s draft class.
For the Arizona Cardinals, it is not who the team believes it is.
Easterling says it’s the first of the Cardinals’ two seventh-round picks: safety James Wiggins.
Wiggins is a physical freak. Even after coming back from a torn ACL that kept him from playing in 2019, he ran the 40 in 4.42 seconds at 5-11 and 209 pounds, had a 38-in vertical leap, a 10-7 broad jump and added 22 bench press reps of 225 pounds.
In 2018, he was great. He had 54 tackles, two tackles for loss, five pass breakups and four interceptions.
He wasn’t the same player in 2020 after coming back from his torn ACL, but he admits, “it was just me being timid coming off the ACL.”
His pro day testing results show the explosiveness is still there.
Wiggins should be a standout special teams player and expects to be that himself. However, if he can play the way he did in 2018, he could become a starter next to Budda Baker. If that ends up being the case, he would be a huge steal.
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