Arizona Cardinals land potential franchise cornerback in 2025 mock draft

This past offseason was one of the best ones in memory for the Arizona Cardinals, especially when it came to the NFL Draft. Monti Ossenfort did a fantastic job giving Jonathan Gannon and the rest of the coaching staff the best possible roster for next season. Ossenfort not only addressed pressing needs, but he was also able to acquire key players who can play an important role for the future of the Cardinals.

As we approach the start of the 2024 season, the Cardinals will be expected to take a step up from where they have been the last two seasons. While it will be hard to imagine a Super Bowl trophy being lifted by the Cardinals anytime soon (although anything is possible), Arizona will still have the chance to show that they will be competitive within the league behind Kyler Murray and the young promising talent that they acquired this offseason.

Even though the new season has not started, there are still talks about the future of the NFL Draft for next offseason and seeing where players could land next year. Teams like the Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots and New York Giants are all expected to be near the top of the board because of the lack of talent they have heading into 2024.

While the Cardinals made significant improvements as compared to a lot of teams this offseason, Ian Cummings from Pro Football Network seems to believe that the Cardinals will still have a top ten pick heading into the 2025 draft. While it is definitely realistic, the Cardinals have too much talent to be one of the worst teams again in the league. However, Cummings thinks that the Cardinals still have lots of growing to do by putting them in the top ten of next year’s draft in this latest mock draft.

Cummings has the Cardinals going cornerback in the first round

With the seventh overall pick in Cummings' mock draft, the Cardinals select Will Johnson, cornerback out of Michigan.

"This is the perfect pick for Arizona, gift-wrapped by the teams in front of them. Max Melton is a great slot-boundary hybrid, as is Sean Murphy-Bunting. But Will Johnson, at 6’2″, 202 pounds, is the verified CB1 who can lock down his boundary and let the others play free."

- Ian Cummings

Even though Ossenfort drafted Max Melton and Elijah Jones on the second night of the draft, as well as added Sean Murphy-Bunting in free agency, the Cardinals could have the chance to draft their true number one corner with Johnson. The NFC West is loaded with lots of wide receiver talent so a team could never have too many options in the secondary. If the Cardinals do indeed get the chance to draft Johnson next year, they will strengthen up their secondary more than they already have.