With the Fifth Overall Pick in the 1981 Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals selected E.J. Junior, who was the second Linebacker taken behind someone you may have heard of; Lawrence Taylor.  Junior did not have Taylor’s career (who could?) but the Cardinals got a lot of good football from the eventual College Football Hall of Fame inductee.

Junior won the starting job during the season and, by the mid-80s, was one of the best interior Linebackers in the NFC.  His best season was in 1984 when he was a First Team All-Pro and began a two-year run of Pro Bowls.  From 183 to 1985, Junior had eight Interceptions and 19.0 Sacks, and though he tailed off afterward, he was still a solid NFL player.

He left the Cardinals behind in 1988, joining Miami as a Free Agent.  The Cardinals were not significant in the 1980s, but this does not detract from Junior's work in St.Louis/Phoenix.

In 2002, Carson Palmer was the best Quarterback in College Football, winning multiple awards and going number one overall in the Draft.  Fast forward a decade later, and Palmer was on his third team (Arizona), and despite the two Pro Bowls, was considered a minor disappointment based on the initial hype.  It was with the Cardinals that he eventually had the best season of his life.

Palmer threw for 4,274 Yards in 2013, finishing eighth in that stat, and became the first QB to throw for 4,000 Yards in a year for three different teams.  A torn ACL took him out of half of 2014, but his 2015 was electric.  Palmer was second in MVP voting to Carolina's Cam Newton and had career-highs in Passing Yards (4,671) and Touchdown Passes (35) while topping the league in Yards per Attempt (8.7), Yards per Completion (13.7) and QBR (76.4).

Palmer had another excellent year in 2016 (4,233 Passing Yards & 26 TDs) but a broken arm in Week 7 of 2017 ended his campaign, and eventually his career, as he retired in the off-season.  With Arizona, Palmer had 16,782 Yards and 105 Touchdowns, and entered their Ring of Honor in 2019.

Bill Koman arrived in Chicago after a trade from the Philadelphia Eagles, and it was as a Cardinal the Linebacker enjoyed his greatest success.

Koman’s first season was in 1959, and as the team relocated to St. Louis, Koman’s profile rose and became one of the team's top Linebackers.  A Pro Bowler in 1962 and 1964, Koman was the team's most ferocious tackler and is arguably forgotten as he starred during the franchise's weak decade.

Long Beach State does not produce many draft choices, let alone NFL Pro Bowlers, but Terry Metcalf would break those molds and become a brief star of the St. Louis Cardinals offense.

Metcalf joined the Cardinals as a Third Round Pick in 1973 and saw immediate action as a rusher and returner with just over 1,000 All-Purpose Yards.  Metcalf would see more touches over the next four seasons, going to the Pro Bowl three times (1974, 1975 & 1977) and accumulating at least 1,000 Yards From Scrimmage years, along with establishing himself as one of the top returners in the NFL.  In all of his Pro Bowl years, he broke 2,000 Yards in All-Purpose Yards, setting a then-record 2,462 APY in 1975, an astounding amount considering it was still a 14-game Season.  Metcalf also received strong MVP consideration over this period, finishing second in 1974 and third in 1975.

In what could never be imagined today, Metcalf bolted for the Canadian Football League for the Toronto Argonauts, where he received the financial compensation he felt he deserved.  With the Cardinals had 9,048 All-Purpose Yards, a significant number, but we also had to drop him a few spots as he was fumble-prone, twice having led the league in Fumbles.