Let’s be honest. The Cardinals brain trust has had a rough decade when it comes to the draft. Hakeem Butler? Josh Rosen? Chad Williams? Robert Nkemdiche? Woof.
The reasons for these misses are up for debate. The most popular hypothesis espoused by frustrated fans is, quite simply, they aren’t good at the draft thing. Arizona Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim is viewed by many fans as the incompetent architect of this history of whiffs.
Others have noted the Cardinals’ history of stunting the development of their picks by playing them out of position. One must wonder how different things would be if the Cardinals had not tried to move Haason Reddick from edge rusher to inside linebacker, or Deone Bucannon from safety to inside linebacker, or Logan Thomas from quarterback to tight end – oh wait. That one would actually have worked.
Whatever the reason, the Cardinals’ recent draft history feels like a wasteland of missed picks and unrealized potential. Yet, amidst this track record of futility, there are a handful of good picks. Players who ended up being solid NFL players. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the Cardinals’ best recent draft picks.
For the purposes of the discussion, we are not looking at the 2021 and 2022 drafts, as it is too early to know if promising picks like Rondale Moore or Marco Wilson will continue to develop into solid NFL players. As such, let’s look at the Cardinals’ five best draft picks from the 2016 draft through the 2020 draft.
5. Jalen Thompson
The Cardinals selected safety Jalen Thompson out of Washington State, in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Supplemental Draft. Thompson impressed in his rookie season, playing 607 defensive snaps, recording 57 total tackles, and earning a respectable 64.4 PFF defensive grade.
Thompson has since developed into a vital – and underrated – part of the Cardinals’ defense. He has often been recognized as the best team’s best open-field tackler and has earned the nickname “The Eraser” due to his propensity for cleaning up defensive mistakes and preventing them from becoming big plays. While he has yet to become a household name beyond the Cardinals fan base, Thompson and Baker have become one of the league’s best safety tandems.
4. Christian Kirk
When the Arizona Cardinals selected wide receiver Christian Kirk with the 47th pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, it felt like a homecoming of sorts for the Scottsdale native and Saguaro High School alumnus. Kirk had an impressive rookie season – especially considering how poor the Cardinals quarterback play was in 2018 – recording 43 receptions for 590 yards and three touchdowns.
Kirk’s tenure in Arizona had some highs and lows but he had his best season in the last year of his rookie deal, securing 77 receptions for 982 yards and five touchdowns. Kirk parlayed his career year into a four-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, worth up to a staggering $84 million.
While Kirk is no longer with the Cardinals, the fact that he commanded such a robust market in free agency stands as evidence that the organization drafted a solid NFL-caliber player in Kirk.
3. Haason Reddick
Haason Reddick might be the most polarizing name on this list – but hear me out. After selecting Reddick with the 13th pick of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Temple University, the Arizona Cardinals tried to convert the undersized, but immensely athletic edge rusher into an inside linebacker. While Reddick played a significant number of snaps as an inside linebacker, he struggled in the role and seemed destined to go down in history as a bust.
But something happened in the 2020 NFL Season. The Cardinals coaching staff moved Reddick back to edge rusher and, after an unfortunate injury to Chandler Jones, Reddick began is road to redemption. Reddick recorded an impressive 12.5 sacks and six forced fumbles in 2020.
The Cardinals did not re-sign Reddick after his career year – a move (or lack thereof) that, in hindsight, appears to be a mistake. Reddick signed a one-year “prove it” deal worth $6 million with the Carolina Panthers for the 2021 season and proceeded to show that he was not a one-year wonder. Reddick recorded eleven sacks for the Panthers and leveraged his production to sign a three-year $45 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2022 free agency period.
Some might argue that the selection of Reddick in the first round of the 2017 draft was a miss by the Cardinals. I contend, however, that the Cardinals identified and drafted a player who has become one of the better pass rushers in the NFL. The problem is not that they missed on the pick, but rather that they mismanaged the player early in his career.
2. Budda Baker
When the Arizona Cardinals selected Budda Baker out of Washington, with the 36th overall pick of the 2017 NFL draft, fans did not yet realize the organization was less than a year away from a messy breakup with star safety, Tyrann Mathieu. So, while the Baker pick may have seemed like a luxury at the time, he ended up becoming the player that made the loss of the Honey Badger more palatable.
Since being drafted by the Cardinals, Baker has been selected to the PFWA All-Rookie Team, has earned four Pro Bowl selections, has been selected twice as a First-Team All-Pro and once as a Second-Team All Pro, and has become a fan favorite in the desert. Baker is, without question, one of the best Cardinals draft picks during Steve Keim’s tenure as GM.
1. Kyler Murray
Despite what the naysayers and self-appointed body language experts might think, since being selected with the first overall pick out of Oklahoma in the 2019 draft, Kyler Murray has been one of the Arizona Cardinals’ best draft picks in recent memory. Moreover, he has the potential to end up being one of the organization’s best draft picks of all time. While some pinged Kyler for his demeanor, durability, struggles seeing the middle of the field, or the occasional ill-advised throw, all these concerns are, at a minimum, overstated.
Since being named a day-one starter, Murray has gone on to earn the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, set the franchise rookie records for most games started, most pass completions, highest completion percentage, most passing yards, most passing touchdowns, highest pass rating, and half a dozen or so other franchise rookie records.
Murray is also a two-time Pro Bowl selection and in 2021 was ranked among the top ten quarterbacks in PFF offensive grade (82.9), PFF passing grade (86.7), completion percentage (69.2%), and quarterback rating (100.6). Moreover, Murray led all qualifying quarterbacks in PFF’s Big Time Throws (BTT) metric with 7.9 percent of his throws being graded as such. For reference, the next highest BTT percent was a tie between Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers with 6.1 percent of their throws qualifying as BTT.
In a world where approximately 70 percent of first-round quarterbacks are busts, the Kyler Murray pick is clearly a win for the Cardinals organization.
Honorable Mentions:
Chase Edmonds
Byron Murphy
Isaiah Simmons
