Top Defensive Draft Picks Say They'd Love to Play for Cardinals
PHOENIX -- The 2023 NFL Combine is just about wrapped up, and now the Arizona Cardinals are set to head back home to assemble and assess all the information they gathered over the course of the last week.
Though free agency is immediately on the horizon, the 2023 NFL Draft will be here soon - and there's a potentially franchise-altering decision to be made with the third overall pick.
There's a handful of top prospects available, though the Cardinals may be looking to address their pass rush after J.J. Watt retired and Zach Allen's future to be determined in free agency.
Two of the top prospects at edge rusher in Alabama's Will Anderson and Texas Tech's Tyree Wilson spoke in Indianapolis about what it would mean to play for the Cardinals:
“Arizona has a new head coach, new GM and I’d be excited to play for that and start the rebuild of Arizona,” said Wilson, who also included Watt in the list of pass rushers he idolized.
"I idolize a lot of pass rushers because every pass rusher is different. I'll look at J.J. Watt - he can play inside/outside. Myles Garrett's disruptive and Von Miller just because his hands were so great. He's a great pass rusher on the edge."
Anderson was more complimentary of Arizona's new coach:
"You can see what the coach [Jonathan Gannon] did at Philadelphia. He had his guys on the edge going, that's something that I really like: Get on the edge and go, so I'm very excited about that," said Anderson.
Cardinals brass were asked about the prospect of adding either Anderson, Wilson or Jalen Carter (who did not speak at the NFL Combine due to legal issues):
"Those are two premium positions (DT or EDGE) with how we want to play defense in Arizona because we know that they're impact positions. So we'll evaluate those guys like we evaluate everybody but you know, those are premium positions and if they fit being an Arizona Cardinal then we'll make that call," said Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon.
"Those are three players that I have studied and will continue to study," Arizona general manager Monti Ossenfort told reporters.
"[I'm] anxious to meet with them and do more work with them this week. Those are three talented players and they all bring different skill sets and they've had good college careers. We're excited to dive more into them and then see exactly how they would fit for our team moving forward."
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