After watching the Arizona Cardinals defense get torched by Green Bay and New Orleans in the playoffs there was no doubt in my mind that the Redbirds were going defense with their first pick.

The Cards brass could have talked all they wanted about best available player, but they weren’t going offense unless Sam Bradford dropped to them at 26.

This team needed defensive help and they got it in defensive tackle Dan Williams who will likely line up at nose tackle with Darnell Dockett and Calais Campbell in the Cards 3-4 alignment to provide beef and youth on that line.

For all intent and purposes Williams is replacing the not signed Bryan Robinson, who did a nice job for Arizona but may have played his last game. Williams won’t provide much of a pass rush but he will certainly give the Cards a run stuffer and allow the Cardinals linebackers more freedom to rush the passer and in pass coverage.

The NFL Network rated Williams as the 15th best prospect and it was somewhat surprising that Baltimore didn’t snap him up and instead decided to trade out of the first round.

A nice nugget is that Williams was taken ahead of Florida’s Carlos Dunlap, Alabama’s Terrence Cody, Auburn’s Antonio Coleman and Kentucky’s Corey Peters, players who were selected ahead of him as first-team All-SEC by the coaches. Williams was second-team. The word I keep hearing on Williams is heart. That he plays with a lot of it.

All in all a good draft pick by Arizona, but much work still to be done.

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