March 26, 2026, 5:29 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
This week has brought a new wave of projections for the first round of the 2026 NFL draft in the form of mock drafts. The latest comes from NFL.com’s Charles Davis<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have the third overall pick in the draft, and recently, there has been increasing discussion about the Cardinals perhaps selecting Alabama QB Ty Simpson. Most of the talk has been about the Cardinals moving back into the end of the first round to get him.<\/p>\n However, as Davis does not mess with trades in his projections, so he has the Cardinals making a bold pick.<\/p>\n Round 1, pick No. 3: Alabama QB Ty Simpson<\/p>\n Last year, I opined in one of my early mocks that Jaxson Dart would go to the Giants with the third overall pick, but I didn’t stick with the pairing as the process unfolded. Dart, of course, ultimately ended up with New York after Big Blue traded back into the first round and selected the quarterback at No. 25. This year, I think Simpson ends up with the Cardinals, even if this is not the spot where they pick him.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n This would be a huge reach, even while some are now saying he is a better quarterback talent than expected No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n While the Cardinals do need a quarterback moving forward, if this is the move they make, they better be sure. It would mean betting the career of general manager Monti Ossenfort on it.<\/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":"March 26, 2026, 5:29 p.m. MT This week has brought a new wave of projections for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,109096,98232,95896,95888,95899,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-836323","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-tagcharles-davis","20":"tag-tagheisman-trophy","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116299799285264674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836323","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=836323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}