With two weeks left of the NFL regular season and more and more teams eliminated from playoff contention, the only thing left to look forward to is the 2011 Draft. The Carolina Panthers appear to have a lock on the first pick (also known as the Andrew Luck sweepstakes). The top five are rounded out currently by the Denver Broncos, the Cincinnati Bengals, our very own Arizona Cardinals and the Detroit Lions. These can change in the next two weeks, but not likely much.
For the Cardinals, this means that there is a good chance they could land one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. Carolina will obviously go with a QB, and likely Luck. The Bengals will look for a quarterback. Denver, though will not, as they already have Tim Tebow and are going to ride out Orton probably another year before handing the keys over to Tebow.
If Detroit moves ahead of Arizona, they will not be seeking a quarterback because they already believe in Matt Stafford.
For Arizona to somehow end up with the top pick and thus win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, they would have to lose their remaining two games (completely likely) and then the Bengals, Broncos and Panthers would each have to win out (not likely).
However, even as things stand, the Cardinals would still stand a reasonable chance of landing Cam Newton, who looks like he could be something special on Sundays.
One thing is for sure, if the Cardinals land a top-five pick, we all hope that whoever they pick will be more like Larry Fitzgerald in quality and less like Levi Brown.