{"id":699420,"date":"2026-01-23T17:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699420\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T17:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:42:19","slug":"nfl-mock-draft-mel-kiper-has-arizona-cardinals-taking-ot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699420\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL mock draft: Mel Kiper has Arizona Cardinals taking OT"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL draft is about three months away and the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> do not even have a head coach, but we have the first of the big mock drafts of the season. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. gives us his first mock draft of the year.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals have the third overall pick, which means they will have their choice of almost all the draft prospects. While they need a quarterback, the top prospect, Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza, will likely go first overall and there is not another quarterback right now projected at the top of the draft.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Mel Kiper picks O-lineman for Cardinals<\/p>\n

With the third overall pick in this mock draft, Kiper has them selecting Miami tackle Francis Mauigoa.<\/p>\n

Mauigoa would have\u00a0just\u00a0missed the chance to join his brother, linebacker\u00a0Kiko Mauigoa<\/a>, with the Jets, but I still have Francis as a top-three pick thanks to his mauling play style, experience (41 career starts) and overall consistency as a blocker. Since\u00a0Kelvin Beachum<\/a>\u00a0is a free agent, Mauigoa could slide in at right tackle and help spring\u00a0James Conner<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Trey Benson<\/a>\u00a0for big runs next season. The quarterback situation is still\u00a0unsettled<\/a>, but no matter who is under center, the protection has to be right.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals have questions for at least three offensive line starting jobs. Jonah Williams and Beachum will be free agents. There is no clear-cut answer at right tackle.<\/p>\n

Because they don’t know who the quarterback will be in 2026, it is smart to build a team around him. A protected quarterback with a good run game are the best things you can have for a rookie quarterback.<\/p>\n

Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: NFL mock draft: Mel Kiper has Arizona Cardinals taking OT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL draft is about three months away and the Arizona Cardinals do not even have a head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,3619,7,1725,1771,216,4002,28960,6,6957],"class_list":["post-699420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-cardinals","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-jonah-williams","tag-mel-kiper-jr","tag-miami","tag-mock-draft","tag-mock-drafts","tag-nfl","tag-the-cardinals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945652183953608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}