Cardinals' 2023 Draft Class Ranks Among NFL's Best
ARIZONA -- As the Arizona Cardinals look ahead to the 2024 NFL Draft, there's hope.
The Cardinals own double-digit picks throughout the three-day event, though six will be made in the first three rounds.
Potential exists for Arizona GM Monti Ossenfort to add instant impact players, something he managed to do in his first show as general manager for the Cardinals last offseason.
The 2023 NFL Draft afforded the Cardinals plenty of chess pieces moving forward - but just how impressive was their rookie class last season?
Bleacher Report recently went through and graded each team's 2023 rookie class, and Arizona's landed at No. 9 in the league:
Cardinals' 2023 Draft Class Ranks Among NFL's Best
USA Today
"No team leaned more heavily on its rookie class than the Arizona Cardinals. Eleven rookies combined for 64 starts—the most in the league by nine," wrote Alex Ballentine.
"They started their draft by taking Paris Johnson Jr. in hopes that he could anchor the offensive line for years to come. He responded by playing every snap of the campaign. It wasn't always pretty. He had 12 penalties and gave up eight sacks, but the learning curve for offensive linemen can be steep.
"Michael Wilson did a lot of the lifting to land the Cardinals a top-10 spot in these rankings. The third-round pick was third on the team in receiving yards, racking up 565 on 38 receptions. His ability to make plays downfield should make him part of the offense for a while.
"Dante Stills was a pleasant surprise. He was their final draft pick, but he started eight games, had 3.5 sacks with five tackles for loss. The Cardinals should be able to count on him as a rotational interior defender in the coming years.
"BJ Ojulari didn't have a stellar season for a second-round pick, but he flashed the pass-rushing chops to become a good starter. He had a 12.4 pressure percentage and racked up four sacks, 18 total pressures and five tackles for loss.
"This class played a lot and had the opportunity to develop. There might not be a star in the group, but they appear to have multiple starters and role players."
The Cardinals were fairly impressed with their 2023 haul, too.
"I think that Monti has done a fantastic job of the acquisition periods (from) this last year in 2023 and bringing in guys that we see fit to be Cardinals. Not to say you don’t make mistakes, but we hit on a lot of those guys," Jonathan Gannon said.
"That’s what we told the rookies too, today, because there’s going to be another group that’s injected into this team that now they kind of have to show the way. When a guy gets out of alignment, you’ve got to bring them back into alignment, but the rookie class I can’t say enough about those guys. Some guys that we brought in, not just at draft time but in September or December they hit the price of admission for those guys as team and then you. I think that when you do that and continually add those pieces and the coaches improve and the players improve, you’ve got a chance.”
