The Arizona Cardinals could play a key part in one of the 2025 NFL Draft's greatest storylines.
Colorado Buffaloes QB Shedeur Sanders was a surprise fall out of the first round on Thursday, sparking even more conversation and debate surrounding one of the draft's most polarizing players.
With even more question marks surrounding his status entering Day 2, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter offered the following ahead of the start of the second round:
"Tyler Shough is going to figure in there tonight and I won't be surprised if Tyler Shough goes ahead of Shedeur Sanders tonight ... I think there are not a lot of times that love the idea of drafting Shedeur. ... I think we may get a team that we never connected to him," Schefter said.
"I don't know what team that is, but I'll give you some examples right now. ... The Seattle Seahawks. The Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys. ... What I'm saying is it would not surprise me if all of a sudden the team that takes him tonight is a team we didn't even connect to him and had him high enough on the board that when he was available at their spot, they couldn't pass him up."
The Cardinals currently own picks 47 (round two) and 78 (round three) tonight.
The allure of a quarterback coming to Arizona has mostly been driven by outside speculation, as the Cardinals do seem fairly confident in the abilities of Kyler Murray moving into the future.
Where the noise starts to get loud is evaluating Murray's overall body of work through this point of his career, and if Arizona doesn't make the postseason in 2025, there's going to be plenty of tough conversations surrounding what the franchise will do at quarterback.
Sanders comes with his own baggage, however - perhaps more so than any other prospect in the draft.
Sanders is quite loud and camera-friendly, which has rubbed some the wrong way. There's also doubts on his actual play on the field in terms of athleticism and inability to avoid sacks.
This actually isn't the first time Schefter has thrown the Cardinals in contention for Sanders - as he did so earlier this month on his own podcast.
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