Steve Keim was far from alone in dismissing Russell Wilson as a draft prospect, but that doesn't mean the Arizona Cardinals general manager, who was the club's vice president of player personnel at the time, lets himself off the hook for it.
In fact, he's pretty hard on himself.
"Look, I'm from North Carolina State. I study all the guys out of there hard," Keim told The MMQB. "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."
A quick refresher on the circumstances: Arizona had traded away its 2012 second-round choice, and had the No. 80 overall pick in the third round. Seattle chose Wilson with the No. 75 overall pick, but Keim made it relatively clear that Wilson wasn't on the Cardinals' radar anyway. Wilson, of course, has gone on to become one of the NFL's top quarterbacks, leaving a lot more NFL personnel executives than just Keim wishing they had taken a closer look at the former N.C. State quarterback who transferred to Wisconsin for his senior year. Of course, it was then-GM Rod Graves who would have had more of a role than Keim in passing on Wilson, but it doesn't sound as though the Cardinals would have looked at Wilson any differently had Keim been the GM at the time.
"There's this thing scouts talk about -- comps,'" Keim said. "It's comparables (to similar NFL players), and for Wilson, who were they? Who at quarterback has had success in the NFL under 6-feet tall? Fran Tarkenton? Maybe Doug Flutie. But like (Seahawks GM) John Schneider said to Pete Carroll before the draft, 'Aside from his height, what's wrong with him?' Nothing."
Quarterbacks drafted ahead of Wilson in 2012 include Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, Brock Osweiler and -- (oops) -- Brandon Weeden.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
