Even though the NFL season officially came to end this week with the Kansas City Chiefs winning their second consecutive Super Bowl championship, the new year will begin next month with free agency and continue into the NFL draft. The Arizona Cardinals are going to be a heavily watched team in the draft, as they head into the new year right now with 13 draft picks and 6 of those picks taking place in the top 100 spots.
They have two first round picks, a second rounder, and three third round picks. According to the power rankings through Tankathon.com, the Cardinals have the best value amongst all 32 NFL teams with a score of 1,486.5. The next closest team to them is the Washington Commanders who have a score of 1,232.9. The values were evaluated by The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective and it shows that the Cardinals should have the most control of the draft should they keep every one of their picks.
The chance of that happening is slim, only because if the Chicago Bears elect to keep quarterback Justin Fields and trade the first overall pick to the Commanders (who would more than likely select USC quarterback Caleb Williams), the Bears could easily take wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who the Cardinals could draft at number four overall. If this scenario were to occur, the Cardinals should trade out of the top five to a quarterback needy team like the Falcons, Broncos, or even the Vikings to gain more draft capital.
Infact, if the Cardinals were able to trade down, gain more draft capital and still be able to get a player like receiver Malik Nabers out of LSU, no Cardinals fan should have an issue with that setup. Overall, the Cardinals have a lot of leverage going into the draft. They will just need to see what the Bears do at number one overall.