B-
Arizona Cardinals
More right than wrong for the Cardinals, and a B- to prove it.
by CherylReacts ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 5 picks
· 1 steals
· 3 reaches
There is conviction, and then there is this. The Cardinals took Howard Cross III a full 37 picks ahead of where the board had him, an overdraft steep enough that it colors the whole weekend. Call it a sensible B-, earned the boring way.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. They banked enough surplus on Muhammad to cover a lot of smaller sins.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 16 they get a cornerstone up front, even if it was a touch early. The biggest hole, addressed.
Xavier Restrepo in the 47th pick is exactly on the number, no argument either way. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Kyle McCord this early at slot 78. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Howard Cross III in the Round 4 slot, miles early. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Jabbar Muhammad in the 151st overall pick. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.