{"id":869723,"date":"2026-04-19T07:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:36:59","slug":"nfl-mock-draft-arizona-cardinals-wheel-deal-land-ot-qb-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869723\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals wheel, deal, land OT, QB, EDGE"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is the weekend before the 2026 NFL draft, and we have another seven-round mock draft simulation for the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>. Since we know the Cardinals are trying to move back in the first round of the draft and drafting quarterback Ty Simpson seems like it is going to happen, those were two priorties.<\/p>\n

Using Pro Football Network’s mock draft simulator<\/a>, there were a few trades. See the trades and the results below.<\/p>\n

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Draft-day trades<\/p>\n

In the first round, the New York Jets want to come up and have consecutive picks like the Houston Texans did in 2023. They give the Cardinals the No. 16 pick, the No. 33 pick and No. 44 pick for No. 3 and the Cardinals’ fourth-round pick (No. 104).<\/p>\n

In Round 2, with consecutive picks at No. 33 and No. 34 after the trade with the Jets, the Cardinals trade back, giving the Houston Texans No. 34 for No. 37, No. 106 (getting back into the fourth round) and a 2027 fourth-round pick.<\/p>\n

With the 44th pick, which they got from the Jets, they move back in the second round again, giving the Kansas City Chiefs No. 44 for No. 52 and No. 84 (a third-rounder).<\/p>\n

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So the Cardinals ended up with these picks:<\/p>\n

Cardinals picks in 7-round mock draft simulation<\/p>\n

Round 1, No. 16 overall: Utah OT Spencer Fano<\/p>\n

Round 2, No. 33 overall: Alabama QB Ty Simpson<\/p>\n

Round 2, No. 38 overall: UCF EDGE Malachi Lawrence<\/p>\n

Round 2, No. 52 overall: Georgia Tech G Keylan Rutledge<\/p>\n

Round 3, No. 65 overall: Miami CB Keionte Scott<\/p>\n

Round 3, No. 84 overall: Notre Dame RB Jadarian Price<\/p>\n

Round 4, No. 106 overall: Southeast Louisiana DT Kaleb Proctor<\/p>\n

Round 5, No. 143 overall: Cincinnati TE Joe Royer<\/p>\n

Round 6, No. 183 overall: Arizona State LB Keyshaun Elliott<\/p>\n

Round 7, No. 217 overall: Cincinnati WR Jeff Caldwell<\/p>\n

How good are the picks?<\/p>\n

Fano in the first round accomplishes the goal of getting a tackle. It worked out that, dealing with the Jets, once Simpson was on the board late in the first round, the Cardinals didn’t have to trade up. Whether you believe he will be a good quarterback, that is a separate thing, but it looks like the Cardinals want him.<\/p>\n

Getting Lawrence is a potentially great pick as he has elite athleticism. It gives the Cardinals another edge threat they need, and they have addressed their three biggest needs in three picks.<\/p>\n

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Adding Rutledge would be a haul. He might be able to immediately start at right guard.<\/p>\n

Scott has ties to the Cardinals coaching staff, as their new cornerbacks coach was at Miami last year and coached Scott.<\/p>\n

Price is also a potential steal, as he played behind Jeremiyah Love at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals met with Proctor. Royer could step into Elijah Higgins’ role. Elliott makes a nice late-round addition and Caldwell is a freak \u2014 6-5 with a 4.31-second 40 and a 42-inch vertical leap. That’s worth a seventh-round pick.<\/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

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals wheel, deal, land OT, QB, EDGE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the weekend before the 2026 NFL draft, and we have another seven-round mock draft simulation for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[390,7,253,110,4002,255,6,6957],"class_list":{"0":"post-869723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-mock-draft","13":"tag-new-york-jets","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-the-cardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116430228699151071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869723","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=869723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}