Teams 'Could Trip Over Themselves' to Trade With Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals hold the keys to a franchise quarterback at No. 4 - who wants it most?

ARIZONA -- The closer we get to the 2024 NFL Draft, the louder noise grows with the Arizona Cardinals and their No. 4 selection.

With a heavy run of quarterbacks expected to commence at the top of the order, the Cardinals could make good on their draft positioning by trading down with a team looking to acquire their next franchise guy.

There's no mistaking who will go No. 1, as Caleb Williams to the Chicago Bears has been all but a formality since the offseason began.

There's some intrigue as to what will happen with the Washington Commanders at No. 2, as passers such as Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels have been projected here for months with no real clear-cut winner at this moment. Personally, Kliff Kingsbury (you remember him!) will likely want another mobile quarterback, and Daniels fits that mold best.

The New England Patriots - just ahead of Arizona at No. 3 - could go a few different directions.

For awhile, the train of thought has been any combination of Williams, Maye and Daniels as picks 1-3. Lately, there's a lot of smoke that J.J. McCarthy could go after Williams to either Washington or New England.

Whether McCarthy is valued that high by NFL teams remains to be seen. Public opinion can (and often does) misgauge draft value, and all it takes is one team to believe McCarthy is above all available options.

The Athletic recently spoke with anonymous NFL executives on the quarterback discourse currently happening, and it indeed pertains to what Arizona could squeeze out of their top pick:

"The wild card is McCarthy. If, as one executive predicted, McCarthy goes second, TV ratings in New England could spike to historic levels on draft night. If McCarthy goes third, teams like the New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders could be tripping over themselves to acquire the Arizona Cardinals’ No. 4 selection. With Maye and Daniels not long ago viewed as a pipe dream for teams outside the top three, a stratospheric leap by McCarthy could significantly adjust several teams’ draft plans," wrote Jeff Howe.

"The Athletic has reported for a month the Cardinals are open for business at No. 4, presumably for a quarterback-needy team, but the fifth QB might not have to wait too much longer, either. Oregon’s Bo Nix has been the perceived favorite at that spot, but don’t rule out Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., who has Yo-Yo’d from the third round to the first and back again more times than any QB in recent memory."

Should one of the consensus top three quarterbacks be available for the Cardinals when they're on the clock, Arizona could have quite the bidding war on their hands.