NFL Execs Believe Cardinals Could Trade Top Pick
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Arizona Cardinals hold a valuable piece to the puzzle in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Thanks to a prior trade last year, the team holds picks No. 4 and 27 in the first round. Six total in the first three rounds. Double digit picks in total for Monti Ossenfort's second year rebuilding the Cardinals.
Ossenfort showed to be fairly active in his first draft as general manager, trading down from pick No. 3 to 12 before jumping back into the top ten to draft Paris Johnson Jr. at No. 6.
Not a bad haul - and trading down appears to be back on the menu.
From The Athletic's Diana Russini:
"I ran into Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon and was blown away by his support of Kyler Murray. It’s very clear Murray is their guy. It’s always enjoyable to hear a coach sound like he’s in love with his quarterback. The Cardinals pick fourth in the draft, and some in the league believe they are open to trading back. Could we see four quarterbacks go with the top four picks? One general manager told me, 'Absolutely!'”
When speaking with reporters earlier this week, Ossenfort told reporters he hadn't received any calls on the No. 4 pick.
"I have not, I have not. If you guys hear anything, come let me know," he said with a chuckle.
"I'm not surprised. We're sitting here at the end of February, we got a ways to go on that. I think everybody is still in the middle of their evaluation process. I think there's a lot of unknown right now. ... Nobody knows. I think those [discussions] happen more as we get close to the draft in April and I think that's what happened last year. We didn't have a lot of discussions over our pick last year at this time and even if we did, they'd be so surface level that I don't think I'd put any credence into them anyway.
"So I'm sure those calls will come and we're going to make our fair share of calls too. I think last year we proved we were more than willing to move up, move back, stay put and pick, so I think those discussions will come a little bit further down the road."
Should any of Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams or Drake Maye be available for the Cardinals at their pick, Arizona could land a massive haul for another team looking to make the leap.
There's a handful of teams looking to make that leap, too:
