{"id":848347,"date":"2026-04-02T01:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848347\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T01:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:27:15","slug":"arizona-cardinals-nfl-draft-needs-edge-olb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848347\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Cardinals NFL draft needs: EDGE\/OLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have done some work this offseason in free agency, but have not improved their roster much. At most positions, they could and probably should add players in the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

But looking at each position, where in the draft should they be looking? While teams always want to stick to their draft board, sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to draft a position early.<\/p>\n

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We will look at each position group and determine what need level the Cardinals have \u2014 is it in Round 1? Is it on Day 2? What about Day 3?<\/p>\n

Let’s look at the defensive edge at outside linebacker.<\/p>\n

Cardinals draft need level: EDGE<\/p>\n

The Cardinals made exactly zero changes to the roster at outside linebacker. They didn’t sign anyone. They didn’t cut anyone. Nobody was a free agent.<\/p>\n

The group has Josh Sweat, who had a career-high 12 sacks in 2025 after signing a four-year deal in free agency, and then a bunch of guys who didn’t do much.<\/p>\n

Zaven Collins, Baron Browning, BJ Ojulari and Jordan Burch (2025 third-round pick) combined for 5.5 sacks, which is a sack fewer than defensive lineman Calais Campbell had by himself from the defensive interior.<\/p>\n

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And as productive as Sweat was, he was statistically insignificant in the fourth quarter of games.<\/p>\n

They weren’t good.<\/p>\n

Draft need\/priority: Critical! This is a top-of-the-draft need, especially with the prospects available third overall. It should be a Round 1 priority. Round 2 priority is barely acceptable. <\/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

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals NFL draft needs: EDGE\/OLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals have done some work this offseason in free agency, but have not improved their roster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[390,7526,10513,4755,5547,7,4609,1254,7522,6,15,6957,10514],"class_list":{"0":"post-848347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-baron-browning","10":"tag-bj-ojulari","11":"tag-calais-campbell","12":"tag-draft-board","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-free-agency","15":"tag-jordan-burch","16":"tag-josh-sweat","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-nfl-draft","19":"tag-the-cardinals","20":"tag-zaven-collins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116332517530081190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848347","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=848347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}