Arizona Cardinals pick Walter Nolen, Blue Dot Alpha Baller from Ole Miss

Very surprised and elated to see Walter Nolen on the board at pick #16

On March 25th I posted a Blue Dot Special article about 4 Power 5 defensive players who earned blue dot grades across the board in terms of run stop and pass rush win rates.

The 4 who fit the criteria (in alphabetical order):

• Donovan Ezeiruaku, ED, Boston College
• Kenneth Grant, DT, Michigan
• Walter Nolen, DT, Mississippi
• James Pearce, Jr., Tennessee

My biggest fear heading into Day 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft from Green Bay last night was that the San Francisco 49ers at pick #11 would take Kenneth Grant or Walter Nolen. I had seen both players mocked to the 49ers in recent days, including Brett Kollmann and E.J. Snyder mocking Kenneth Grant to the 49ers at pick #11 during the “Bootleg Football Annual Mock” three nights ago.

When the 49ers took edge Mykel Williams from Georgia, I felt a deep sigh of relief. Mykel is hugely talented, but he didn’t make the blue dot cut, meaning that neither his run stop win rate (7.2%) nor his pass rush win rate (11.1%) were in the Top 5 of the top Power 5 edge players in this draft.

Walter Nolen’s RSWR of 11.9% was 2nd best among the top DTs, only behind Michigan’s Mason Graham, who went #5 to the Browns. Nolen’s PRWR of 10.9% was 3rd best, behind Graham and Derrick Harmon, who went 21st to the Steelers.

At pick #13, the Dolphins, whom many believed would take CB Jahdae Barron, hopped on Kenneth Grant —- which gave me an instant feeling of deja vu because of how much I wanted the Cardinals to have the chance to take Christian Wilkins in the 2019 draft.

At pick #15 I had a feeling, even though the Falcons took the clock down to the final 30 seconds, that they were going to take Georgia’s Jalon Walker. Now, this Bulldog is a dynamic player who will excite any fan base. My only concern about Walker was where the Cardinals’ coaches would play yet another tweener linebacker.

Feeling elated that Walter Nolen was still on the board, I began to fear that the Cardinals would trade down maybe as far as the Eagles at pick #31, because all I have heard from Eagles fans and pundits the last few weeks is how much they wanted Walter Nolen to be the successor to Milton Williams. Last night, the ESPN crew reported a couple of times that Howie Roseman was trying to trade up.

Then this happened:

For all of the reasons I have tried to extrapolate on the last several weeks, I cannot even begin to tell you how appreciative I was to see the Cardinals stick and pick Walter Nolen which gives the Cardinals a huge step forward in catching up with those bright, young Rams’ defensive linemen.

The first thing I did was to reach out to Brett Kollmann this celebratory tweet of thanks:

Next, when asked this question on X:

Then I offered kudos to Kyler:

And finally, having watched the clip of Aaron Donald’s video message to Walter Nolen at the Combine, this:

Before the start of the draft I lauded Jon Ledyard for his position rankings: check out where he ranks Walter Nolen: Click on it.

He just tweeted:

This morning to hear this clip of JG’s sheer commitment to the pick and to Walter Nolen was the coup de gras:

The JG clip says everything one would want to know about how and why he, Nick Rallis and Monti Ossenfort were so keen on Walter Nolen and how relieved and excited they were to see him on the board at pick #16.

1,000% a Cardinal.

May that be said of all of us who remain passionately loyal to our team, regardless of our warts or disagreements.

Like my legendary coaching mentor, Myles Hubbard, liked to say, “there’s nothing wrong with getting a little excited!”

Heck, did any of you see Darnell Dockett’s message to Walter Nolan last night?

Darnell Dockett is getting a little excited.

And now Calais Campbell has the opportunity to be the mentor to Walter Nolen the way Darnell Dockett was the mentor to him as a rookie, during the Cardinals’ lone Super Bowl year, no less!