{"id":850759,"date":"2026-04-03T05:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850759\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:12:24","slug":"cardinals-projected-to-make-major-nfl-draft-trade-with-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850759\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Projected to Make Major NFL Draft Trade With Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Arizona Cardinals have a number of options available to them with the third overall pick, which was emphasized by head coach Mike LaFleur&#8217;s comments on the roster construction.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">&#8220;We ended up just doing our draft stuff the other day, and we&#8217;ll see where this thing goes. But again, I like where we&#8217;re at from a roster standpoint. So you can kind of take that for what it is,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cardinals\/onsi\/news\/what-we-really-learned-arizona-cardinals-nfl-owners-meetings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LaFleur said<\/a> while also mentioning general manager Monti Ossenfort did a good job in supplementing spots so Arizona didn&#8217;t have to &#8220;reach&#8221; in the draft. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">It would come as absolutely no surprise if Ossenfort (who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cardinals\/onsi\/news\/arizona-cardinals-gm-hints-another-major-nf-draft-day-trade\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">openly suggested<\/a> the Cardinals may not be picking at No. 3) moves down based off his prior draft history, where he&#8217;s been willing to wheel and deal in the last three drafts he&#8217;s orchestrated. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7151713\/2026\/04\/01\/nfl-mock-draft-intel-coaches-scouts-agents-2026\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=twhq&amp;smid=url-share-ta&amp;source=twitterhq&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.XlA.DCnm.KyxEbjNU-bVi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic<\/a>, that again could be the case. <\/p>\n<p>Cardinals, Cowboys Mock Draft Trade<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">Bruce Feldman, who used info from sources such as lscouts, coaches and agents, has the Cardinals trading down with the Dallas Cowboys in the first round to the 12th overall pick. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">&#8220;Arizona really needs O-line help, but this spot seems too high for what is available in this draft, so trading back is the Cards\u2019 best move,&#8221; Feldman wrote. The Cardinals moved down for No. 12 and 92 \u2014 which is later in the third round. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">The Cowboys ultimately moved up for edge rusher David Bailey, a player Arizona themselves may be eying with their original pick. Opposing Big 12 coaches described Bailey as &#8220;different&#8221; and &#8220;special&#8221; to Feldman. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">Arizona, at No. 12, misses out on both top tackles prospects in Francis Mauigoa and Spencer Fano before selecting Monroe Freeling. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">\u201cHe looks like a giant tight end with the way he can move and bend,\u201d one SEC D-line coach told Feldman. \u201cHe\u2019s a very impressive big athlete. He\u2019s still pretty raw and gets off-balance and isn\u2019t great with his hands \u2014 at least he wasn\u2019t when we played him \u2014 but all the tools seem to be there. He needs to keep getting stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Honest Thoughts on Projected Deal, Outcome<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">Absolutely not. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">The Cardinals moving completely out of the top ten for the price of a late third-round pick should have general manager Monti Ossenfort removed from his spot effective immediately, especially considering Arizona got far more in a similar trade with the Houston Texans back in 2023. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">The price point alone is enough to warrant hesitation, though missing out on the top prospects in favor of Freeling at No. 12 simply wouldn&#8217;t be good business. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">If that&#8217;s the offer, the Cardinals would clearly be better off sticking at No. 3 and taking the BPA regardless of position. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals have a number of options available to them with the third overall pick, which was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-850759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116339064543330577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850759","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=850759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}