Biggest draft steals in Cardinals history

2. Antonio Smith

In the fifth round of the 2004 NFL Draft, the Cardinals selected Antonio Smith. He went on to play 13 seasons in the NFL, appearing in 186 games during that time.

While Smith never had an eye-popping number of sacks in any single season, he ended his NFL career with 47.5 sacks with a career-high in 2012. Smith spent five years with the Cardinals and had 14.5 sacks during his half decade in the desert. His career really took off when he signed with the Texans, as he had 27.5 sacks in six years in Houston and that seven-sack season took place in Houston.

Smith rounded out his career with short stints in Denver, Oakland, and then back in Houston before hanging up the cleats. A fifth-round pick going on to spend over a decade in the league is impressive enough but Smith also made a name for himself as a pass-rusher, which is also pretty great.

1. Pat Tillman

With a seventh-round pick in the 1998 draft, the Cardinals selected Pat Tillman, who played not too far away in college at Arizona State. Tillman was an immediate playmaker for the Cardinals, notching 73 tackles in 16 games and 10 starts as a rookie.

Tillman only got better each year and in Year 3, he had an astounding 155 tackles with 118 of those being solo tackles. He had 94 tackles in Year 4 and turned down a contract offer from the Cardinals in 2002 so that he could enlist in the military following the September 11 attacks. Tillman was tragically killed in Afghanistan at the age of 27.

People might forget that Tillman was a seventh-round pick because he never played like it. He was ascending in the NFL and could have continued to play at a high level but opted to join the military instead. He will never be forgotten.