April 5, 2026, 1:15 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> have been tied to some prospects more than others. With the third overall pick, they are largely expected to select a pass rusher or a tackle.<\/p>\n Three players often mocked to them make the list of the 12 players that get a true first-round grade<\/a> from ESPN’s Matt Miller.<\/p>\n Miller also gave player comps for the players who got true first-round grades.<\/p>\n Below are the three players often connected to the Cardinals and their player comps.<\/p>\n Miami OT Francis Mauigoa<\/p>\n Player comp: Darnell Wright<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The Cardinals supposedly want to draft a tackle, and Mauigoa is the best. Wright became a second-team All-Pro this past season.<\/p>\n Ohio State EDGE\/LB Arvell Reese<\/p>\n Player comp: Abdul Carter<\/p>\n The Cardinals also need a pass rusher and love Ohio State players. He isn’t a finished project at the defensive edge, but many see him becoming what Micah Parsons is. Carter had four sacks as a rookie for the New York Giants.<\/p>\n Texas Tech EDGE David Bailey<\/p>\n Player comp: Nik Bonitto<\/p>\n Bonitto has become a force. He has 27.5 sacks over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n Bailey has the prototypical size to play as a 3-4 OLB and led the nation with 14.5 sacks for the Red Raiders.<\/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":"April 5, 2026, 1:15 p.m. MT The Arizona Cardinals have been tied to some prospects more than others.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,95930,95892,95896,95888,96117,95906,96008,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-856297","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-tagbig-ten-conference-football","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnik-bonitto","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116355792417186542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856297","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=856297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}