Jan. 23, 2026, 9:01 a.m. MT<\/p>\n
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 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 Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 23, 2026, 9:01 a.m. MT The NFL draft is about three months away and the Arizona Cardinals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[95878,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,95892,101172,101975,95896,95888,95895,95906,96008,95883,97137,95881],"class_list":["post-699481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","tag-sstsncardinals","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarizona-cardinals","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-tagjames-conner","tag-tagkelvin-beachum","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-listicle","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtrey-benson","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945773851853441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699481","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=699481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}