Cardinals take o-linemen in fourth, fifth round

Arizona Sports News online

For those who questioned if the Cardinals would ever address their offensive line in the draft, they did, selecting a tackle and a guard with their fourth and fifth round selections respectively.

The Cardinals decided to take tackle Bobby Massie in the fourth. Massie appeared in 37 games at Ole Miss, starting his final 29 games at right tackle, which has to be something that appealed to Arizona.

Massie was a rock for the Rebels in 2011, despite their 2-10 season, recording an SEC best 102 knockdowns at his position.

Here’s another stat that should make offensive line coach Russ Grimm happy: all twelve of the Rebels rushing touchdowns last season came on the right side of the line.

“He’s a big, strong guy, he can move,” said Grimm. “We liked the physical part of it. He has a chance to come in here and compete for a starting job.”

Massie echoed Grimm’s sentiment as far as starting is concerned.

“I want to get in, learn the system, and get around the guys, my teammates,” Massie said. “My goal is to potentially be the starter by the time the season starts.”

Grimm confirmed that the team would start Massie out at right tackle.

Arizona continued their offensive line rush by taking guard Senio Kelemente out of the University of Washington.

Like Massie, Kelemente had a lot of experience at his school, starting 41 out of 45 games for the Huskies. The majority of his starts were at left tackle.

Grimm said Kelemente is projected to start at guard, even though his natural position is at tackle.

“We’ll start him at a guard, but it’s nice to know that he’s a guy that you can move out to tackle if you have to,” Grimm said.

With these two young additions to the offensive line, Grimm thinks the team has enough depth up front.

“We should have enough depth,” Grimm said. “You always like to have at least eight or nine that you feel comfortable being able to put in a game.”

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