By Ronald Sampson
There’s a moment in every Arizona Cardinals offseason when you realize the team isn’t building toward a championship. It’s building toward a sellout. This draft was that moment, delivered in primetime from Pittsburgh, gift-wrapped in red and white.
A Running Back Nobody Asked For
With the third overall pick, the Cardinals selected Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, a player many consider the best prospect in the class. He is fast, explosive, and utterly thrilling to watch. He is also the wrong pick at the wrong time for a franchise with the wrong problems.
Arizona’s identified top needs heading into this draft were offensive line, quarterback, and safety. The offensive line is a legitimate crisis: the team has spent multiple premium picks on the unit in recent years and it still looks like a trouble spot. A running back, however electric, does not run behind himself. ESPN’s Dan Graziano put it plainly: “Awesome player, terrible pick.” He’s right. Love will spend his rookie year absorbing hits behind an offensive line that couldn’t protect a clipboard.
Jeremiyah Love. Photo Credit: syracuse.com
The Cardinals also re-signed James Conner and added Tyler Allgeier in free agency, creating an already crowded backfield before draft weekend. Adding the third overall pick to that room isn’t roster construction. It’s marketing.
The Second Round Got It Right (Mostly)
To their credit, the Cardinals spent the second round on Chase Bisontis, a guard out of Texas A&M. That’s the kind of sensible, unsexy pick that actually moves a franchise forward. It will sell zero extra jerseys. It won’t get a single extra fan through the turnstiles. Which is probably why it won’t be the pick anyone remembers from this draft.
Carson Beck and the Low-Ceiling QB Gamble
With the first pick of the third round, the Cardinals selected Carson Beck, the Miami quarterback who spent last season rehabbing his draft stock after a rough 2024. Beck is experienced, polished, and almost universally regarded as a game manager with a modest ceiling. His inability to escape pressure at the next level is a legitimate concern, and multiple analysts handed the pick a failing grade.
Carson Beck. Photo Credit: Arizona Cardinals
Here’s what should bother Cardinals fans most: with another bad season likely on the horizon, Arizona figures to hold a top-five pick again next April, when the quarterback class is projected to be substantially deeper. Burning a third-round selection on a low-ceiling bridge quarterback, when a franchise-altering passer could be available in 2027, is the kind of move that makes you wonder who’s actually calling the shots.
Ownership Fingerprints
Michael Bidwill has a history of prioritizing attendance over winning. Love and Beck are the kinds of picks that generate buzz, sell merchandise, and give local media something cheerful to cover in August. They are not, in any coherent framework, part of a logical rebuilding plan.
The Cardinals finished 3-14 last season. That record earned them the third pick. Whether it earns them anything better next year depends on whether anyone in Glendale is actually trying to build a team.