In Their Own Words: Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort Walks Through First NFL Draft
The 2023 NFL Draft is now a thing of the past, and the Arizona Cardinals look to capitalize on what many believe to be one of the best drafts in the league, in terms of gaining capital and maximizing picks.
For first time general manager Monti Ossenfort, it was an opportunity to put the Cardinals in great position to truly get their rebuild off on the right foot.
Though time will actually tell if this was a successful haul, many believe Arizona walked away as major winners from draft weekend.
A day-by-day look at how Ossenfort maneuvered the draft boards and assembled his draft class, in his own words:
Leading Up to the NFL Draft
The Cardinals possessed the third overall pick but were heavily expected to trade down thanks to an expected run on quarterbacks at the top of the order. With so many holes on the roster, it felt like any player Ossenfort and company drafted at any spot would be considered a win.
“I think we’re trying to get as many good players and good people on the team as possible. I think every draft is important. I think this is a big opportunity for us to add talent to our team and to add the right type of people that fit our team from both a talent and a culture standpoint," said Ossenfort.
"This is a major step in the league year of opportunity for us to add those players. I don’t know really what that number is. We’re going to try to add as many good players and people as we can.”
After Day 1
Rumors went crazy leading up to the draft: What would the Cardinals ultimately do? Everything was on the thread of what the Houston Texans would do with the pick prior to them. Certainly deals would be in place for Arizona to move down, but the availability of certain players would dictate where the Cardinals moved and how much they got in return.
After moving down to Pick 12, the Cardinals quickly jumped back up to Pick 6 to take Ohio State OL Paris Johnson Jr., a much needed addition to the offensive line. In total, Arizona nabbed a future first-round pick while still getting the player they wanted at Pick 3:
"When Houston made their pick at number two it adjusted who was interested in coming up to number three. At that point we were on the clock, and we were prepared to take a player and were weighing a couple options. The option with Houston presented itself for us to grab a high second round pick and then to also grab a first and a third next year, which was really important and was not something that we set out to do," Ossenfort said.
"We were ready to pick a player, but the opportunity presented itself and we dropped back to 12. When we were back to 12, we knew that these were scenarios that we walked through during the week and started investigating possibilities to climb back up. When we had an opportunity to do that, we had a couple calls and had a couple lines in the water. We got our opportunity to do that with Detroit and gave up the two that we had picked up in the trade with Houston, had a couple of trades swapped, a couple of late round picks there, and moved up to grab Paris (Johnson Jr.) - we are so excited to add Paris.
"I spent a lot of time with Paris between the combine and the 30 visit, he’s an impressive young man and you guys will get a chance to meet him tomorrow. He comes from a good program at Ohio State, (Head) Coach (Ryan) Day runs a great program there - they’ve won a lot of games. They've won a lot of games - Paris has played guard, he's played tackle. Opportunity to add a high character individual who's also got a lot of ability on the field. The opportunity presented itself and we went ahead and made the move.”
Sure, the Cardinals grabbed an offensive lineman for the future - one that was considered to be the best in their class. Yet Arizona failed to secure help at positions that needed addressed in edge rusher and cornerback.
How would Arizona approach Rounds 2 and 3?
After Day 2
With three picks total on Day 2, the Cardinals nabbed some serious talent.
LSU edge rusher BJ Ojulari was there for the taking in the second, a nice addition to a front seven that lost Markus Golden, J.J. Watt and Zach Allen.
The loss of CB Byron Murphy in the secondary was filled with their next pick in Syracuse DB Garrett Williams, who likely would have been picked earlier if not for his ACL injury.
To finish the day up, Arizona grabbed a big body receiver in Stanford's Michael Wilson before trading their last pick of the day for more picks on Day 3:
The theme of the day for Ossenfort? Football character:
“We had that early second round pick, 33. Ended up getting a deal with Tennessee on that deal. A little bit of, we dropped back to 41 and then we also gave them 81 and that's where we picked up 72. It was a little bit of a flop in the third there. Then the key for us was getting that third round pick in 2024. That was really the kicker that put that over the top. So then dropping back to 41. Taking BJ Ojulari out of LSU - outside linebacker. A guy who, it's going to be a theme tonight, football character," said Ossenfort.
"BJ wearing the prestigious number 18 jersey at LSU. Given to the player that represents the values and of what LSU's program is about, it's awarded by coaches and staff members to one player each year and that was BJ this year. So again, a talented football player and an even better person that we're anxious to add to the program.
"From there with the other pick, that mid third rounder that moved up in the trade with Tennessee we took Garrett Williams, a corner out of Syracuse. Garrett, a guy that we met with at the combine. An impressive, impressive individual. Again, football character through the roof. Mature, tough, dependable. Garrett played really well in the ‘21 season and then the ‘22 season suffered a torn ACL there in October, knee injury. Working his way back. We feel good about where he is and where he will be. He'll come in here and keep rolling with his rehab and we'll get him out there as soon as we can. But again, excited to add another player with high football character like Garrett.
"Then at that point we were picking at the bottom of the third round, picking at number 94. Michael Wilson, a wide receiver from Stanford. Good size, good toughness, physical receiver. Played down at the Senior Bowl this year. Had a very good week down there in Mobile. An impressive kid. Another guy that our scouts had identified as having high football character, a guy that we wanted to add to our program.
"Then we had a pick right there after that at 96 and we had an opportunity to, it was a situation where at the time we were on the clock at 96. We were completely out of the fourth round. We were completely out of the fifth round. So, opportunity with Detroit came up and we gave them the 96th pick that allowed us to drop back into the fourth, right. So it was the flop 96 to 122. So that puts us in the middle of the fourth tomorrow. But, on top of that we got their picks at the top and the bottom of the fifth round. So, all in all, we started the draft with eight picks. We've picked four players so far. We’ve got five picks tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. We'll see where we end up. And then we've picked up the extra capital for next year as well. An extra first, an extra third, actually two extra thirds. So those are things that we're excited about."
Plenty of holes on the depth chart were filled, but the work ahead of the Cardinals on the final day of the draft was going to be quick as the weekend wrapped up.
After Day 3
No trades were made on the final day of the draft - Arizona stuck at all five picks and added depth on both sides of the ball.
"Unlike the previous two days, there were no trades today, no moving around. We had some opportunities to do that, some things came up and decided it just didn't make sense and wasn't the right thing to do today. We stood pat at each of our picks. The first three picks of the day were a result of the Detroit trade last night," said Ossenfort.
"The fourth at 122, we took Jon Gaines, a guard from UCLA guard who’s played multiple positions. He is a guy that we did a lot of work on in the fall, and then he showed up at the East West game in Las Vegas and had a chance to play some center there like he did at UCLA as well. We've kept a good conversation going with him from Vegas until through the combine and through the pre-draft process.
"Then, at 139 we took a quarterback out of the University of Houston, Clayton Tune. He was a Senior Bowl participant and actually was coached by our quarterback coach now, ‘Izzy’ (Israel) Woolfork—‘Izzy’ had a relationship with him. He’s a productive, athletic quarterback that we were excited to add.
"Then at 168 Owen Pappoe; Owen was one of the two guys that came for our first 30 visit, so he was our guinea pig for our new process that we were doing with 30 visits this year. He made a really good impression on us, he’s another guy that we were excited to add at linebacker. He’s got good speed, physical player.
"Then the two picks that we originally had going into the day before the Detroit pick at the top of the sixth round, number 180 Kei’Trel Clark from Louisville. Another guy that we had a chance to bring in here on a 30 visit—big personality. He's a fun guy to talk to and was having a heck of a draft day party, so when we called him, he was fired up and we're anxious to get him here.
"And then the last pick of the day number 213, Dante Stills—another guy who's in Las Vegas at the East West game. A defensive lineman, has been highly productive in his career. He brings some inside outside pass rush, so we were excited to add another line of scrimmage player.
"That's where we ended up. We've been cranking away here since the draft ended on undrafted free agency. The guys are upstairs trying to get some things ironed out with that. That's always another part of the draft that sometimes goes unnoticed, but it's an area that we put a lot of work into this year and we're intentional with the guys that we were adding. We're excited to get a few new guys in here to add to our rookie class, so that’s where we’re at and we're excited about the last three days. We think we added some good players and we came into the draft with eight picks and ended up with nine.
"We're excited about those guys that we added and excited about not only the football players, but the people that we added to the building.”
The Cardinals added some serious talent in the draft while stockpiling some strong ammo for 2024. Early reviews of Ossenfort's first time at the wheel were superb, and it feels as if fans have something positive to discuss for the first time in awhile.
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