The Real Reason Cardinals Stayed Quiet at NFL Trade Deadline

The Cardinals made no moves at the NFL trade deadline — and there’s a smart reason why Arizona chose to stand pat this year.

Nov 3, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon looks on in the first half against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The NFL's 2025 trade deadline has officially passed, and the Arizona Cardinals were bystanders on what turned out to be a fairly hectic day.

Across the league, we saw some massive names from Sauce Gardner to Quinnen Williams dealt for hefty draft capital.

Today featured the third-most amount of trades in deadline day history. In total, the 25 players traded in-season was the most we've seen in the past 25 seasons.

The Cardinals were quiet, however, and that's perfectly okay.

Why Cardinals Were Right to Not Make Moves

Sitting at 3-5 on the year, the Cardinals find themselves in quite an interesting spot.

Arizona has fallen way short of expectations in their third season under Jonathan Gannon and Monti Ossenfort. 2025 was supposed to be a year that saw the Cardinals make a playoff push.

Rather, the team now finds itself in purgatory.

The Cardinals aren't bad enough to warrant selling players such as the New York Jets, Las Vegas Raiders or New Orleans Saints.

Though their five-game losing streak completely derailed their season, Arizona has been ultra-competitive in each matchup and arguably could be 6-2 or 7-1 had a few bounces gone their way.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon watches from the sidelines as they play against the Las Vegas Raiders at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, on Aug. 23, 2025. | Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Yet on the other side of the coin, the climb uphill to a postseason berth is so unlikely the Cardinals wouldn't be wise to emerge as buyers on the open market with teams in the likes of the Indianapolis Colts or Seattle Seahawks.

Ultimately, the Cardinals shouldn't make any major decisions until they reach a final verdict on Kyler Murray's future in the desert, which has come under heavy speculation in recent days.

Arizona currently has the No. 12 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, though there's plenty of opportunity for that to either raise or fall before the end of the regular season.

If the Cardinals are in position to take a quarterback, Murray could very well be on the way out barring a second half turnaround of the century - which would factor into Arizona's decison-making when it comes to free agency, trades, the draft, etc. next offseason.

The final games of 2025 will prove to be vital in assessing where the Cardinals are at as an organization. Unfortunately, Arizona is far too deep in the middle of the league's pendulum of judgement to make the right decision on where to go moving into the future.

Sitting on the sidelines isn't fun - but for all intents and purposes, Arizona made the right move by not doing anything at this year's trade deadline.

Letting the last half of the schedule play out should tell the Cardinals all they need to know about what direction to take moving forward.