C+
Arizona Cardinals
Grand theft in the Round 7 slot: the Cardinals steal Cephus and grade out a C+.
by Rozza ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 5 steals
· 1 reaches
The phones were a trap the Cardinals kept walking into, shipping out surplus on nearly every deal. Fine in stretches, shaky in others: a C+.
The Hadden pick reads as want over need, and the roster will feel it at edge rusher. If one pick saves this weekend, it is Cephus. That edge rusher hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall.
In the end, a coin-flip class: fine today, with a wide range of outcomes ahead.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 5th overall pick they get a difference-maker at receiver at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Troy Fautanu in pick 35 lands just on the right side of the ledger. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A market-rate interior defensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Byron Murphy II. A need, and now a little less of one.
By-the-book stuff, Devontez Walker at pick No. 49 squarely in line with his ranking. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Nothing to complain about; Jeremiah Trotter Jr. went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They paid sticker price for Blake Corum in the 69th pick, and that is fine. It fills a real need, too.
They did well to land Javon Bullard in the 71st overall pick, just ahead of his grade. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
A slide stopped in pick No. 92, with Mike Sainristil worth more than the price. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Zak Zinter slid further than he should have, and pick 104 is lovely value for the offensive lineman. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
No drama and no debate, Matt Goncalves went about where he belonged in No. 105. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A curious use of the Round 4 slot. Edge rusher needed the pick; a cornerback in Kamal Hadden did not.
Javion Cohen at Round 5, Pick 4 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They took Layden Robinson at par in the 161st pick, which is nothing to complain about. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Austin Stogner in slot 198 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They went early on Taulia Tagovailoa in No. 207, and the value did not follow. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They read the board right and Omar Speights was the payoff at pick No. 217. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
The board had Sheridan Jones higher than the 227th pick, and the cornerback fell to them anyway. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Circle this one: Joshua Cephus at slot 249 is a fall that decides a draft. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.