The 2025 NFL Draft will take place on Thursday, April 24. The Arizona Cardinals have the 16th pick in the first round. Ahead of the draft, Razing Zona is looking back at the past first-round picks and how they’ve worked out, in an arbitrary but fair way.
Today, we review the picks from 2010 to 2014. Tomorrow, 2015-2019 and then, 2020-2024.
Re-grading the Arizona Cardinals first-round draft picks from 2010-2014
2010: Dan Williams at No. 26
The Cardinals took Dan Williams as their first-round pick, selecting the top-tier defensive tackle out of the University of Tennessee. He had a promising start as a rookie with 38 combined tackles but suffered an injury in 2011, breaking his arm during a game against the 49ers. Williams bounced back in 2012 with 44 combined tackles and his first professional fumble recovery. But he never got close to replicating his college success (62 tackles, 2 sacks as a senior), so the Cards opted not to renew his contract in 2015.
Rating: B-. The Cardinals had lost Antonio Smith to the Texans, so I can’t blame them for trying to shore up their defense. The team was also coming off its first 10-win season in nearly four decades, so they probably weren’t in a “let’s panic and rebuild everything” or “hold onto anyone remotely good” mode. Williams was a solid pick at the time, though it’s sad that he didn’t take off as everyone expected (but he’s been doing well as an advocate of youth literacy, per JustMyMemphis).
2011: Patrick Peterson at No. 5
After faceplanting with a 5-11 record in 2010, the Cardinals wisely used their No. 5 pick to select LSU’s Patrick Peterson. As the winner of the Chuck Bednarik and Jim Thorpe awards, Peterson immediately shot electricity through the Cards’ defense and helped turn things around. His rookie season saw 59 solo tackles (64 combined), two interceptions, and 699 punt return yards—resulting in a league record of 4 punt return touchdowns, including one for 99 yards. Peterson is also one of five defensive players in the Super Bowl era to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first 8 seasons.
Rating: A. For ten seasons with the Cardinals, Peterson was a headache for opposing teams’ offenses. Selecting him was one of the Cards’ best draft decisions in the past two decades. Though he never surpassed the numbers he put up in his rookie year, he was still a legitimate defensive threat (one that might be headed to Canton). It wasn’t all great, as he did serve a 6-game suspension for a PED violation in 2019. Peterson left the team in 2021, but he returned earlier this month to retire as a Cardinal. Got to respect the loyalty.
2012: Michael Floyd at No. 13
In a precursor of the current Marvin Jarrison Jr. saga, the Cardinals used their first-round pick in 2021 to select wide receiver Michael Floyd—someone who didn’t really shock and awe in his first season. 45 receptions for 562 yards and 2 touchdowns, Floyd started fine. He improved in his sophomore year; as a starter, he scored 5 touchdowns on 65 receptions for 1,041 yards. It would be the only season in which he broke a thousand yards. He’d spend five seasons with the Cardinals…
Rating: D. …or, technically, 5.95 seasons. The Cards released Floyd in December 2016 after he was arrested for DUI; however, with his dwindling performance, the team was already planning to part ways with him.
As a Senior at Notre Dame, Floyd received a citation for drunk driving and a subsequent suspension from the football team—a red flag that probably should have pushed him further down in the Draft. Arizona, as a state, doesn’t come off as a highly disciplined environment that would have kept Floyd's vices in check. And while hindsight is 20/20, this feels like a wasted pick.
Don't drive drunk.
2013: Jonathan Cooper at No. 7
Arizona selected UNC’s Jonathan Cooper, making him the highest-picked offensive guard in 25+ years. He was given the starting left guard position, but multiple injuries derailed Cooper’s career. He broke his left fibula during a 2013 preseason game, suffered a knee and wrist injury the following year, and another injury in 2015. The Cardinals traded Cooper to New England in 2016 for a second-round draft pick and defensive end Chandler Jones.
Rating: N/A. It’s easy (and somewhat mean) to call Cooper a bust, but he was a victim of bad luck. Cooper was a top-rated prospect headed into the draft, and the Cardinals leaped at the chance at a potential phenom. And he was reportedly dominating his rookie training camp when the life-changing leg injury happened. Cooper would bring Jones to Arizona, so he contributed to the team, just not in the way he anticipated.
2014: Deone Bucannon at No. 27
The 2014 season was the second under head coach Bruce Arians. The previous year, he’d worked his magic to turn them from a 5-11 flop to a 10-6 team that just barely missed the playoffs. In the 2014 draft, the team picked Deone Bucannon. He got to work quickly, starting off as a safety before Arians switched him to the inside linebacker position in 2015.
The shift worked in his favor, as he recorded 93 solo tackles (112 combined), 3 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and a touchdown off an intercepted pass. An ankle injury hampered his 2016 career, but he had a strong comeback in 2017. After a disappointing 2018 season, the Cardinals opted not to renew his contract.
Rating: B. Bucannon was a solid member of the Cardinals' defense, one who meshed well with Bruce Arians (so much that he followed him to Tampa Bay in 2019, where they both won a Super Bowl. Gross). While his 2018 season was mid, the rest of his Cardinals career was pretty good. It’s just a shame he and Bruce didn’t lift the Lombardi trophy while they were both in Glendale, but so it goes.
Tomorrow, we hit the second half of the 2010s, with D.J. Humphries, Robert Nkemdiche, Josh Rosen and Kyler Murray.