The Big Red Zone continues its series by looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1983 Draft, which was held April 26-27 in New York.

The Cardinals went into the 1983 NFL Draft with some uncertainty about their secondary.

Roger Wehrli had retired after the 1982 season, bringing to an end a 14-year Hall of Fame career. Carl Allen had bolted from the Cardinals and signed with the USFL. And Jeff Griffin was still recovering from a broken arm he suffered during the final game of the ’82 season, a 41-16 playoff loss to Green Bay.

Who was going to start at left cornerback opposite Wayne Smith?

In an effort to answer that question, the Big Red loaded up on defensive backs in the draft, targeting the cornerback position in the first, second, fourth and sixth rounds. 

With their first-round pick (17^th overall), the Cardinals took McNeese State’s Leonard Smith, who many scouts had rated as the second-best cornerback in the draft after Tim Lewis (picked 11^th overall by Green Bay) despite having played at Division I-AA McNeese State in the Southland Conference.  

Not satisfied with just one cornerback, the Cardinals also drafted Baylor’s Cedric Mack (second round), Tulane’s Lionel Washington (fourth round) and Delaware’s George Schmitt (sixth round). 

1983 St. Louis Football Cardinals Draft

1-17	Leonard Smith	DB	McNeese St.
2-44	Cedric Mack	DB	Baylor
3-71	Ramsey Dardar	DT	LSU
4-96	Mark Duda	DT	Maryland
4-103	Lionel Washington	DB	Tulane
5-130	Steve Bird	WR	Eastern Kentucky
6-157	George Schmitt	DB	Delaware
7-184	Carlos Scott	C	Texas-El Paso
8-211	Bob Harris	LB	Auburn
9-242	Otis Brown	RB	Jackson St.
10-269	Tim Lucas	LB	California
11-296	Aaron Williams	WR	Washington
12-323	James Lane	LB	Alabama St.

Leonard Smith was injured for a lot of his rookie training camp and did not start any games in 1983. After splitting time between cornerback and nickel back, he ended up at strong safety, where he blossomed. In 1986, Giants coach Bill Parcells said he considered Smith to be one of the four or five best defensive players in the NFC. In six seasons with the Cardinals (1983-88), Smith played in 78 games (61 starts), intercepted six passes and had 11 sacks. After leaving St. Louis, he played four more seasons in Buffalo, where he helped the Bills to two Super Bowl appearances.

Cedric Mack started five games at left cornerback as a rookie and saw a lot of playing time in other games a nickel back. He started 84 of the 117 games he played with the Big Red (1983-90), had 20 interceptions for 178 yards and recovered seven fumbles. Head coaches Jim Hanifan (in 1985) and Gene Stallings (in ‘86) both tried to convert Mack into a wide receiver—think Roy Green—but that experiment failed. After Mack caught only six passes for 77 yards, it was determined that he belonged on defense.

A sprinter for Tulane’s track team who ran the 100 meters in 10.3 seconds and the 220 in 20.8, Lionel Washington had an explosive rookie season in 1983, intercepting eight passes for 92 yards. “I’ve never seen a young man make as many big plays as Lionel does,” assistant head coach Floyd Peters said during training camp the following year. But Washington played only four seasons in St. Louis—he had 16 interceptions for 201 yards and one touchdown—before he was traded to the Raiders. He played 11 more NFL seasons: nine with the Raiders and two with Denver. 

Mark Duda started 34 games at defensive tackle in five seasons with the Cardinals (1983-1987) and recovered four fumbles and had 9.5 sacks.

Carlos Scott was a backup center who played in 45 games for the Cardinals (1983-85) but started only one (as a rookie).

Bob Harris made an immediate impact with three interceptions as a rookie but made only 11 starts in three seasons with the Big Red (1983-85).