Which Teams Could Cardinals Trade With in NFL Draft?

The 2025 NFL Draft is set to begin just hours from now, and for the first time in league history, each team retains their original draft position moving into the day of the first round.

We've heard rumblings this draft class isn't considered elite and many teams are looking to trade back as opposed to up - and the Arizona Cardinals have widely been viewed as a team who wants to move down and gain extra draft ammo.

That line of thinking is true for a few reasons: The Cardinals only have six selections entering tonight, and historically speaking general manager Monti Ossenfort has been active when it comes to draft day trades.

With Arizona owning the 16th pick, here's a few teams that are rumored to be looking to make a move up the draft board:

Honorable Mentions: Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers

Both are in win-now mode thanks to their current state of the roster, and each franchise respectively was previously thought to be interested in moving up before reports this morning suggested quite the opposite - Pittsburgh and Green Bay are more interested in moving back.

Houston Texans

The Texans have the 25th pick and were included in ESPN's list of teams to watch for a move up tonight.

From Field Yates:

"Houston has plenty of competition ahead of them in the draft order for offensive linemen. The Cardinals (No. 16), Bengals (No. 17), Seahawks (No. 18), Chargers (No. 22) and Vikings (No. 24) have all been popularly linked to the position in the first round. The Texans -- who have seven total picks this year -- could try to jump ahead of at least a few of those franchises."

It's also worth noting the Cardinals and Texans have prior trade experience together, as the two swapped first-round picks two years ago.

Buffalo Bills

Yates also included Buffalo in his article, though a jump from the Bills' 30th pick to 16 would take quite the deal for Ossenfort to say yes.

"Buffalo's list of needs is short in comparison to almost every other NFL team -- it has one of the league's more elite rosters. But the Bills do need help at cornerback -- they allowed the NFL's fifth-worst completion percentage last season (68.5%), Rasul Douglas is still unsigned, and there's a question mark opposite Christian Benford," said Yates.

"Because of injuries to East Carolina's Shavon Revel Jr. (ACL) and Notre Dame's Benjamin Morrison (hip), there may not be as much cornerback action in the first round. Still, Buffalo could be motivated to move up in a number of different ways for one of the top players at the position.

"... General manager Brandon Beane has traded up in the first round four times during his tenure in Buffalo."

Beane certainly has an aggressive track record when it comes to the draft - is Arizona too far and out of reach?

Would Cardinals Actually Trade Down?

The Cardinals reportedly are trying to move out of their pick, according to ESPN's Josh Weinfuss.

Ossenfort also has made some interesting comments leaving the door open for a move:

"We have six picks right now. Will we end up with six picks? Will we have less than that? Will we have more than that? I don't know. I can't answer that," Ossenfort told reporters during his pre-draft press conference.

"All I know is that we have our board set and we have the values that we think the players are. When it's our turn to pick, if they say it's our turn, then we'll be ready to pick a player.”

It certainly seems possible, but remember it does take two to tango when making a trade.