Arizona Cardinals: 5 worst draft picks all-time

4. Tom Knight

The Cardinals really used to struggle with reaching for a position of need instead of taking a player that was the best available. Heading into the 1997 NFL Draft, the Cardinals were in dire need of a cornerback, and with Shawn Springs already off the board, the Cardinals made their biggest reach yet.

They selected cornerback Tom Knight from Iowa instead of going with other players that were available to them like Warrick Dunn and Tony Gonzalez. Knight was a huge reach and the pick left many baffled at the time why the Cardinals would take a risk there.

Sadly, Knight wouldn’t be worth the pick that was spent on him and he would bounce around the league at the cornerback spot. When a team drafts a cornerback with a top-10 pick, they are expecting a player to come in that can shut down one side of the field and effectively take on the other team’s best wide receiver every single play.

Knight couldn’t do that and it was yet another reach that didn’t end up working out for the Cardinals, when they could have been adding potential Hall of Fame talent instead of what they ultimately ended up with.

Next: 3. Thomas Jones