{"id":855874,"date":"2026-04-05T22:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:31:14","slug":"nfl-mock-draft-arizona-cardinals-make-picks-in-5-round-projections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855874\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals make picks in 5-round projections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 NFL draft approaches in under three weeks, which means we only have a couple of weekends left for mock drafts. NFL.com&#8217;s Chad Reuter has new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/five-round-2026-nfl-mock-draft-four-trades-two-qbs-send-jolt-through-round-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:five-round projections;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;five-round projections&quot;}\" class=\"link \">five-round projections<\/a>, and two quarterbacks are selected in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Arizona Cardinals;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Arizona Cardinals&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> make a predictable pick with the third overall pick, but what about the rest of the five rounds?<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Arizona Cardinals picks in 5-round mock draft<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Round 1: Miami OT Francisco Mauigoa<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Round 2: Ohio State DT Kayden McDonald<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Round 3: LSU QB Garrett Mussmeier<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Round 4: Tennessee EDGE Joshua Josephs<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Round 5: Texas EDGE Trey Moore<\/p>\n<p>Commentary<\/p>\n<p>Picking Mauigoa third overall wouldn&#8217;t be terrible, but it would be ignoring their huge need on the defensive edge, where they got 5.5 combined from four players at outside linebacker not named Josh Sweat.<\/p>\n<p>However, not addressing the edge until Day 3 would be tough. Moore was a monster at UTSA, but his production after transferring to Texas (8.5 sacks, 14.5 tackles for loss combined in two seasons) was not impressive.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald is a fantastic prospect. The Cardinals like getting defensive linemen and Ohio State players, but he would be the third D-lineman selected in three drafts in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>We presume the Cardinals will take a quarterback at some point. Nussmeier in Round 3 makes sense. A Day 3 quarterback might be better.<\/p>\n<p>Get more <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cardinals;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Cardinals&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cards;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Cards&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Cards<\/a> Wire&#8217;s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/27gxR7Oml5yVPywhOG8KHR?si=cGJ0FN6aRBquiLus5nj7rw&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=05e790ef05a641b8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Spotify;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Spotify&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL9sICHPD_aT9zxnG7dJj6izJWgMhLMh_U&amp;si=rpNldnLNN-_DdW8R\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:YouTube;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;YouTube&quot;}\" class=\"link \">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-rise-up-see-red-podcast\/id670822447?mt=2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Apple podcasts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Apple podcasts&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/cardswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/cardinals\/2026\/04\/05\/nfl-mock-draft-arizona-cardinals-make-picks-in-5-round-projections\/89477865007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals make picks in 5-round projections;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;NFL mock draft&quot;}\" class=\"link \">NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals make picks in 5-round projections<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL draft approaches in under three weeks, which means we only have a couple of weekends&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[390,6311,7,7522,4002,28960,6,1446,6718,526,6957],"class_list":{"0":"post-855874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-chad-reuter","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-josh-sweat","12":"tag-mock-draft","13":"tag-mock-drafts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-ohio-state","16":"tag-quarterbacks","17":"tag-tennessee","18":"tag-the-cardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116354474775762823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855874","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=855874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}