The Cardinals Quietly Did Something No Other NFL Team Would in the Draft

The Arizona Cardinals made a few surprising moves and decisions during the 2026 NFL Draft, though one quietly went under the radar.

The Cardinals taking Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 was a bit surprising despite the recent smoke and noise leading up to the pick. Some would argue the team's third-round pick in Carson Beck was more eye-opening, though general manager Monti Ossenfort surprisingly didn't make any trades during the three-day weekend.

Ossenfort, normally happy to wheel-and-deal with other teams, was the only NFL general manager to have no trades of any other picks, using all of their original selections according to Howard Balzer.

The Cardinals were the only team in the NFL that had no trades of any other picks and used all their original selections.
— Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) April 26, 2026

"No movement, no trades. Had a couple opportunities. Nothing quite got us excited to move out on anything. That’s the way it goes sometimes, but excited about the seven guys we added and the undrafted group, we’ll see how that all shakes out," Ossenfort told reporters after the draft concluded.

The Cardinals were heavily expected to drop out of the third overall pick, though they ultimately stayed and took Love. Arizona's time on the clock nearly ran out, and while many expected a flurry of trade calls to be the reason, the Cardinals actually couldn't find Love's phone number.

“If you want me to tell you the honest to God truth, we had the wrong phone number. The phone number that we were given was the wrong one and so that was a little bit of the delay. But we got that straightened out and we called Jeremiyah and got ahold of him," Ossenfort said.

"That is what the delay was, technical difficulties. There was very minimal conversations, some surface-level but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move off the pick.”

The Cardinals in previous drafts had traded up and down the board on all three days, as Arizona famously moved back from No. 3 to 12 in 2023 before jumping back to No. 6 to take Paris Johnson Jr.. The next year, they traded back in the second round to take Max Melton.

Sprinkle in a few Day 3 moves, and that lends itself to the surprise that was Arizona sticking and picking from the very beginning to the very end.

That could be a sign that Arizona liked their board and how things unfolded so much to the point where no offers were enticing enough to get Ossenfort to move off the pick.

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