The Cardinals must improve on the offensive line under new head coach Mike LaFleur. Mauigoa brings a dose of nastiness to the unit.

The Cardinals had brief discussions* with the Raiders on a package that would include quarterback Kyler Murray and the No. 3 pick for the chance to draft Mendoza. (*By "brief," we mean we could hear laughter coming through our Slack channel.) All good. The Cardinals can use free agency to settle their QB situation and the draft to bolster their offensive line. Arizona's performance up front last season was terrible, so immediate help is needed. At 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, Mauigoa has great size and a mean streak the Cardinals need. Along with left tackle Paris Johnson Jr., he gives them solid building blocks up front. Baby steps.

There is depth at the tackle spot in this class, even if there isn't a no-doubt franchise left tackle prospect. Spencer Fano currently sits at the top of my board among tackle prospects. He's incredible in the run game but can be overpowered by bigger defenders in pass pro.

Arizona continued an offseason of offensive change. Since the end of the 2025 season, the Cardinals have hired Mike LaFleur as the new coach and brought in Nathaniel Hackett as the new offensive coordinator. They released their quarterback of the past seven years, Kyler Murray. They also signed Isaac Seumalo to shore up the guard spot and added Tyler Allgeier to the running back room -- there's some power in the ground game.

There were still massive holes in this lineup entering draft weekend, though ... most notably at the roster's most important position. Would Arizona make a splashy move for Alabama's Ty Simpson, as many mock drafts (mine included) predicted? Or would GM Monti Ossenfort tread water with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew II (another new signee) for a year before what should be a better QB class in 2027?

We knew Arizona wasn't going quarterback at No. 3, but that's all we knew for sure. Earlier in the week, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Cardinals taking Jeremiyah Love there was a real possibility. A team that won three games last season going running back in the top three? I've long said that taking RBs early in the draft is bad team building. It's a non-premium position that typically runs deep with other players who can carry the load and be nearly as effective.

But ... Love is not a running back in the classical sense. He's a dynamic offensive playmaker who is going to spark an otherwise dull Arizona offense. He's a Reggie Bush clone with incredible vision and burst, and with 4.36 speed, he can go the distance any time he touches the football. Love averaged 6.9 yards per carry last season, he hit nine 20-yard gains (tied for 10th in the FBS) and he forced 60 missed tackles (top 20).

All of that puts him in the first round, but what takes him into another tier and makes him worthy of such a high selection is his ability in the passing game. I'd bet Hackett will get him lined up out wide or in the slot. He will be sprinting out into the flat for quick gains and after-the-catch opportunities. Love has soft hands and runs good routes. Arizona isn't solely going to hand the ball off to him; it is going to target him often in the pass game. The RB room is certainly crowded now, with Allgeier and James Conner, but Love jumps to the top of the list. Heck, the Cardinals could even get two of them on the field, with Love out wide. They have a lot of options and opportunities for creativity, and this pick will absolutely energize the fan base.

From there, Arizona kept reinforcing the offense. At No. 34, the Cards added Chase Bisontis, who should slide in at the other guard spot opposite Seumalo. He's a 34-game starter, and he hasn't allowed a sack since September 2024.

And at No. 65, they took a swing on a quarterback. As we saw throughout the College Football Playoff, Carson Beck can drop the ball in a bucket. His ball placement is really, really good, especially downfield. I don't know that he pushes past Brissett or Minshew to start, but he's a worthy shot in the third round. Arizona couldn't ignore the QB position, and this pick both gives the team another option in 2026 and doesn't keep the team from going in on the 2027 class.

If LaFleur can just get Marvin Harrison Jr. on track, there's some hope for this offense. Even if the real QB answer doesn't come until next year, the surrounding players are starting to fall into place. That said, the defense needs to play some catch-up, too. The Cards didn't make a single defensive pick until Kaleb Proctor at No. 104, and they didn't do much there in free agency, either. That kept Arizona in "B" territory.

It seems like they maybe filled appropriate positions? But perhaps in the wrong order? Love, arguably the draft's player, arrived via the third overall pick. And while it feels wrong to ding GM Monti Ossenfort for adhering to the oft-trumpeted "draft the best player available" maxim, it also seems like he might have relegated Love to an existence similar to the one Saquon Barkley suffered for years while serving as the offensive focal point of the quarterback-hindered Giants. Second-round G Chase Bisontis was a solid choice … even if Ossenfort maybe should have taken a little less to trade down from No. 3 and get a right tackle in the first round. Third-round QB Carson Beck? He'll doubtless get a shot to play here, so it's a great landing spot for him. And, in fairness to Ossenfort, he was probably never going to take Simpson as highly as the Rams wound up doing it. Hard to envision Arizona remaining anything but buried in last place in the NFC West … though maybe that's for the best if, like the Jets, they wait to launch a bona fide QB plan until 2027.

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