Instant gratification: it took Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin exactly four quarters to let the world know that he was the cream of the rookie crop

Football Digest, Spring, 2004 by Charean Williams

TALK ABOUT A QUICK STARTER. In Anquan Boldin's very first game, he made the boldest statement possible. His 217 yards, on 10 receptions, were the most ever for a player in his NFL debut.

Right then, it was clear to everyone that Boldin was destined to be the most influential rookie of 2003. By season's end, the Arizona Cardinals wideout had a rookie- record 101 receptions, 1,377 receiving yards, and eight touchdowns. He took all the suspense out of FOOTBALL DIGEST'S race for Offensive Rookie of the Year, winning the award by a country mile.

"I always thought, given an opportunity, that I could succeed," Boldin says. "I just didn't know how I fit in before the first game. Coming into the season, people were saying that I wouldn't be any more than a third-down receiver.

"You've got to give credit to my coaches. They gave me an opportunity, and after proving myself, they continued to give me chance after chance."

Boldin wasn't supposed to be this good. After running 40-yard dash times of 4.70 and 4.72 at the NFL Scouting Combine last February, he slipped in the draft Five other receivers were selected before Boldin, who went in the second round with the 54th pick overall. But those five wideouts--the Houston Texans' Andre Johnson, the Detroit Lions' Charles Rogers, Arizona's Bryant Johnson, the New England Patriots' Bethel Johnson, and the Washington Redskins' Taylor Jacobs--combined for only 142 catches, 1,903 yards, and 11 touchdowns.

In other words, compared to those guys, Boldin was a one-man wrecking crew. "He's special--very, very special," says Dave McGinnis, who was fired as head coach of the Cardinals the day after their 4-12 season ended. "It's too early to tell just how good he can be, but I do know there are a lot more things ahead of him. This gay can do it all. He's got the most fabulous hands; he's deadly underneath; he can stop and go; he can shake man-to-man. His numbers are only going to grow."

Jerry Sullivan, who was Arizona's offensive coordinator in 2003 and now is the Miami Dolphins' receivers coach, pushed the Cardinals to draft Boldin from the day he fist saw the wideout on film. Sullivan liked that Boldin could make moves in the slot.

The Cardinals, in need of receivers after losing David Boston and Frank Sanders in the offseason, used one of their two first-round picks on Penn State's Johnson, who had run a 4.55 in the 40 for scouts. Arizona had Boldin targeted for the second round, but after trading down in that round from 37th to 54th, the Cardinals were nervous he would be gone.

As it turned out, Boldin's 40-yard dash times and questions about his recovery a from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that cost him his junior season scared most teams.

"Everyone thought he would run 4.45 or something like that, and he ran slow," says draft expert Gil Brandt, the former player personnel director of the Dallas Cowboys. "If he would have run a little faster, Anquan Boldin would have been in the middle of the first round. This guy is strong--he carries a uniform. There are guys that run 4.4, and you put a uniform on them and they can't run. This is a guy that ran 4.6, and you put a uniform on him and he runs faster titan some of the 4A guys."

Boldin was motivated by the draft-day snub. After all, his football ability never previously had been questioned. The kid had been a phenom from his earliest days as a player; he made his high school junior varsity team at Pahokee High in Florida when he was in just the eighth grade and was the starting quarterback by the time he was a freshman. Boldin set a state record by gaining 11,433 all-purpose yards in his prep career, culminating with a senior season in which he threw 36 touchdown passes and ran for another 20 in earning Florida's Mr. Football award.

In Boldin's first game at Florida State, he scored a touchdown. And despite starting only 23 games for the Seminoles, he caught 118 passes for 1,790 yards and 21 touchdowns.

It's little wonder, then, that he experienced so few growing pains once he arrived in the NFL The Cardinals asked him to learn two positions, the "F" and the "X" receiver spots, in his first mini-camp, which was a lot to dump on a first-year receiver. Even though Boldin had only four catches in the preseason, the Cardinals knew they had something special. But even they couldn't foresee that he would wind up being the only rookie in the league to be named to the Pro Bowl. Boldin hit the ground running, although it took an injury to starter Larry Foster early in the season opener against the Detroit Lions for Boldin to get his chance.

"We figured he could be a slot receiver, a third-down guy, somebody we could do a lot of things With," McGinnis says. "We didn't use him purposely in the preseason, so he really broke out on people. People didn't know anything about him. But this was not a one-hit wonder, a flash in the pan. His role expanded, by necessity, and he became a playmaker."

Boldin once again proved his worth during a 30-27 loss to the St. Louis Rams in Week 4. After Boldin made a catch over the middle, St. Louis' Aeneas Williams bounced off the wideout's thigh and then Adam Archuleta bounced off his upper arm. Boldin wound up taking the ball 54 yards for a touchdown.