Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim continues to rave about rookie John Brown
Sep 22, 2014, 4:30 PM | Updated: 4:30 pm
Just three weeks into the 2014 NFL season, the legend of Arizona Cardinals rookie wide receiver John Brown continues to grow.
The third-round pick out of Division II Pittsburg State continued to impress Sunday, scoring two touchdowns in the the third quarter of the Cardinals’ 23-14 win over the San Francisco 49ers at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Brown immediately made an impression on Cards brass after being drafted, but now the rest of the league is taking notice as well.
“John Brown is everything that was advertised,” Arizona general manager Steve Keim told Doug and Wolf Monday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “He’s got some wheels, that’s for sure. It’s amazing the acceleration and the foot speed he has down the field. When he gets to the top of his stem on some of those routes, it’s amazing the acceleration and the top-end speed that he has.
“It certainly caught some of the 49ers’ defenders off guard, particularly their safeties.”
In three games, Brown has three touchdown catches and all of them have come in big spots.
In the season opener against San Diego, his 13-yard touchdown catch with 2:25 remaining gave the Cardinals their winning margin. Sunday, an eight-point deficit became a six-point lead in a five-minute span of the third quarter.
Keim reiterated that Brown has exceeded all expectations so far.
“We were awfully excited about him and had high grades on him, but any time you take a young man from a small school — and who really had an interesting path to get where he was — you see a small-school guy like that who has that skill set, you don’t think they’re ready to come in and contribute right away. You see a little more developmental value,” Keim said. “But his understanding of route concepts and leverage and just his speed and ball skills, everything he has has been fantastic.
“He’s been a lot of fun to watch.”
