The Good, Bad and Ugly From Cardinals' 2026 Draft

This is never the stunning or flashy move that will get fans excited, though the Cardinals managed to grab two fairly coveted linemen for each side of the ball.

Second-round pick Chase Bisontis was a favorite across many draft analyst's grades this past weekend as a guard who excels in both run/pass protection. Bisontis is somebody who can immediately come into Arizona's offensive line room and start from Day 1.

Fourth-round pick Kaleb Proctor projects as one of the more underrated names from Day 3 of the draft, mostly due to his size and lack of caliber opponents as an FCS player. Yet with that said, Proctor is an elite athlete for the defensive line and should pair really, really well next to Walter Nolen III down the road.

The Cardinals now have four of five offensive starters on their line set with Elijah Wilkinson set to be the fifth at right tackle. Arizona needed another dominant running mate for Nolen in the trenches and that comes in the form of Proctor.

The trenches is where games are won and lost. Props to the Cardinals for improving both sides of the line.

The Bad: Making Jeremiyah Love One of the Highest-Paid RB's in the NFL Before He Even Plays

Put your pitchforks away, because I'm not complaining about the pick itself or Love as a prospect. Purely on the football field, this should be really fun.

However, friends, if there's a drawback, it's making Love one of the highest-paid running backs in the NFL before he even steps foot on to a football field.

The NFL introduced rookie scale contracts for each draft position as a way to eliminate massive paydays and wild contract demands from rookies. Each pick essentially has an already established contract number with little wiggle room to negotiate.

For the No. 3 overall pick, that contract total is roughly $53 million.

That figure immediately puts Love as the No. 1 running back in the NFL terms of total contract value and guaranteed money for the position. He'll also rank near the top of the league in terms of cap hit this year and annual average salary, too.

Yes, Love is projected to do some big things. Yes, he is exciting. Yes, he should make the Cardinals better. None of that can be debated, even for somebody such as myself who was so adamantly against the selection beforehand.

However, making any player the highest paid at their position before he officially logs a snap for you is such a massive gamble.

The Ugly: Not Addressing 2 Key Holes on Roster

Maybe this isn't ugly, though we needed to fill this portion of the article and this by far stood out as the biggest negative takeaway.

The Cardinals entered the draft with two big holes on the roster after free agency, with many expecting Arizona to address both fairly early in the draft.

They didn't address them at all.

The Cardinals needed to add another top edge rusher to pair opposite of Josh Sweat on defense while snagging a starting right tackle to anchor the future opposite of Paris Johnson Jr. along the offensive line.

Arizona opted to bypass top tackle options early on while the mid-round crop of edge rushers also were turned away by Ossenfort.

To be very clear, no football team is without holes. Every team can't address every need - that's just the reality of life in the NFL.

Yet the three offensive tackles signed in free agency are better off as depth pieces while the combined talents along the edge opposite of Sweat combined for just 4.5 sacks last year.

Both rooms failed to see upgrades, and if we're nitpicking, the Cardinals bypassed multiple opportunities to do so in favor of depth at other positions.