Steve Keim helps Arizona Cardinals clean up scouting image at Current News

by Dan Bickley, columnist - May. 5, 2012 05:34 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Reputations are like oil stains. They don't remove easily.

But after years of draft-day debacles, the Cardinals finally are cleaning up their image as talent purveyors.

In the process, they finally might have solved the franchise's deepest fundamental flaw.

"It starts with Michael (Bidwill) and Rod (Graves)," said Steve Keim, the recently promoted vice president of player personnel. "Those guys have continued to place more and more emphasis on our scouting department. It's not just an afterthought anymore, and I think that's extremely crucial to the success of a NFL team. Putting together a good scouting staff is every bit as important as putting together a good coaching staff."

Start with Keim, who has taken on a more-authoritative role in personnel matters in recent years while his boss, Graves, tends to the business side of football. The results have raised the bar and some eyebrows.

Keim isn't a general manager by title. But he talks like one. He acts like one. He's not shy with his opinions. Recent draft classes reveal a franchise operating in sync, and a team enjoying a steady influx of young players. He knows what Ken Whisenhunt wants in a player, and over time, has earned the coach's trust.

"Ken is all about character and intangibles and getting the right kind of players in the locker room," Keim said. "And now we've hit on enough players where Ken feels comfortable with us, with the process."

That hasn't always been the case in Arizona.

Entering his 14th season with the team, Keim was just an underling with the Cardinals when the scouting department was full of crusty veterans who didn't exactly blaze a trail. They read other people's reports. One of them took the position that Terrell Suggs was nothing more than a third-round pick, and wouldn't budge.

It created a dysfunctional paralysis, where the coach occasionally would leave the draft room shaking his head, or seething with anger. That's no way to run a football team.

In the NFL, smart franchises use draft picks to address the future. They use draft picks to replace players who will be too expensive or too old in coming years. They use draft picks to select the best football players on the board.

Bad football teams are constantly treading water. They have holes to fill. They draft for need while other teams eye superior talent. That only widens the competitive gap.

Keim won't take all the credit for the team's enhanced performance in talent evaluation, citing scouting colleagues Jason Licht (former Patriots personnel director and finalist for the Bears' GM vacancy), Dru Grigson (brother of Colts GM Ryan Grigson) and Malik Boyd. But something has changed dramatically in Tempe.

"We have guys that don't get a lot of accolades," Keim said. "But in the last five years, we've done a complete overhaul of the scouting department. And Jason (Licht) coming back is really going to bolster the strength of our department."

Keim also credits Graves for affording him a "long leash," and for reeling him in when necessary. Graves also deserves credit for apparently grooming a successor, for being committed to team and not his own ego, for recognizing his own spotty record as a talent evaluator.

Two years ago, Keim was working for the Cardinals while living in North Carolina, a decision born out of convenience. Now he's full-time in Arizona and a hot name in league circles, having just interviewed for the Rams' GM job.

Imagine how good he'll look if Ryan Williams (last year's second-round pick) and Michael Floyd (first-rounder in 2012) are standout performers this season.

"I think there are three things that make a great personnel man: your eye to evaluate talent, your organizational skills and your conviction," Keim said. "If you're talking to a GM or a head coach about a player they don't know, and you don't come full tilt with strong conviction, how can they believe in you?

"To me you have to be willing to stand up and swing for the fences. You don't get better by trying to hit singles all the time."

Impact players and keen-eyed evaluators are hard to find in the NFL. Generally, you don't get one without the other. And after all these years, the Cardinals might have figured it out.

Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Follow him at twitter.com/danbickley. Listen to "Bickley and MJ" weekdays on 2-6 p.m. on XTRA Sports 910.