B+
Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals let McCord fall and pounced. Final grade: B+.
by joehoeppner1 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 6 steals
· 0 reaches
Somebody in Round 5, Pick 36 was going to get robbed, and it turned out to be the rest of the league. The Cardinals sat still while Kyle McCord, the No. 120 name on the board, slid all the way to them, then sprinted to the podium.
They robbed the room blind at the table, and it lifts the grade on its own. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped edge rusher, which is a strange place to end up.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 30 they get a pocket-collapsing interior rusher, and a steal at that. A real need, handled.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Jihaad Campbell at Round 2, Pick 24 is the proof. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Tate Ratledge in pick 62 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Donovan Jackson in the Round 3 slot is fair value, right on his grade. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
O'Donnell Fortune in slot 153 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They barely believed it either: Kyle McCord still on the board at No. 175. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They will replay Chase Lundt at the 179th overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Nice patience on Antwane Wells Jr., who had no business lasting to the 198th pick. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A market-rate interior defensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on CJ West. The roster fit checks out.
A straight-up fair deal on Torricelli Simpkins III at the 246th overall pick, value and slot in agreement. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.