Feb. 22, 2026, 1:01 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
We will see scores on mock drafts over the next several weeks. Many will have the same player for the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, who have the third overall pick in the 2026 draft.<\/p>\n NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice released his first mock draft of the year<\/a>, and the pick for the Cardinals isn’t altogether surprising.<\/p>\n The first overall pick is of course Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, going to the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>. Second overall to the New York Jets is Texas Tech EDGE David Bailey.<\/p>\n Who goes third overall?<\/p>\n Round 1, pick No. 3: Miami OT Francis Mauigoa<\/p>\n Freshly minted head coach Mike LaFleur spent the past three years coordinating a Rams<\/a> offense fronted by big, burly blockers, so it\u2019d make plenty of sense for the Cardinals to grab the 6-6, 335-pound Mauigoa. With athletic 24-year-old Paris Johnson Jr. capably manning the blindside, Arizona can form an enticing, young bookend duo by selecting this rugged right tackle who will still be 20 on draft night.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n While this pick strays from one notable trend for the Cardinals over the last three drafts under general manager Monti Ossenfort \u2014 they have not selected any player outside the Big Ten or SEC in the first two rounds \u2014 it is on brand for Ossenfort in terms of taking offensive lineman. The Cardinals chose to trade down and select Johnson over Will Anderson in 2023.<\/p>\n They don’t know yet who will be playing quarterback in 2026, but giving that mystery player protection is a good idea.<\/p>\n Is it better than adding elite defensive talent to a unit that badly needs it? That is the question.<\/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":"Feb. 22, 2026, 1:01 p.m. MT We will see scores on mock drafts over the next several weeks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,95885,95924,95896,95888,96683,95895,95899,96067,96008,95883,97222,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-770928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-cardinals","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","16":"tag-sstsncardinals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","19":"tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","20":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-draft","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","26":"tag-tagparis-johnson-jr","27":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-tagwill-anderson-jr","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116119752270396105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770928","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=770928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}