Yahoo Sports Fantasy Analyst Matt Harmon and The Athletic's Robert Mays discuss various trade scenarios for the Arizona Cardinals ahead of the NFL Draft and their chances of returning to playoff contention. Listen to the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Show podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
video transcript
Matt Harmon: Should I be particular about choosing 4? Or should I trade it in? Because this roster looks poised to drop a top former receiver prospect like Marvin Harrison.
Robert Mays: To do.
Matt Harmon: That's exactly the room.
Robert Mays: To do. But I also think they need more support. I think you could argue that they need so many players that they could collect more picks by stepping back a little bit. And there is a possibility that they will move up the rankings again like they did last year.
If that's an option, that's the most interesting option to me. Therefore, I would like to introduce a hypothesis that I would like to propose to you.
Matt Harmon: got it.
Robert Mays: Let's say Minnesota doesn't finish in the top three. The top three teams are picking quarterbacks tenaciously, but Minnesota desperately wants a player. They're worried about JJ McCarthy going No. 6 to the Giants. They say, we're going up.
So if they trade back to Minnesota, they'll get No. 11, No. 23, and No. 1 next year, along with the No. 27 overall pick they already acquired from Houston last year. The top half of the top 10 will participate. Marvin Harrison will end up going to the Chargers or another team at No. 5.
But then you get another receiver. And there's still a 7 or his number 8 left on the board. So you go from No. 11 and trade his No. 66 for No. 11 and his third round pick and go back to No. 7 or No. 8 and there's a huge difference between Harrison and the other two. If you don't think so, it's the third receiver.
For me, that’s fantasy football. We're just having a good time here. This is my favorite scenario.
Matt Harmon: And it's not necessarily that they're losing any picks other than their two first-round picks. As well, they have a second-round pick, their own second-round pick, and are No. 35 overall. They have three picks in the third round – their own pick, a pick from the Titans, and a pick from the Texans. In the fourth round, he was ranked 104th overall.
As you mentioned, they are in a very unique situation. They have a franchise quarterback and are tied to that. There’s a lot of good vibes around the coaching staff. There's just a lot of good vibes around the building.
Maybe people didn't feel that way 365 days ago. But I feel like the Cardinals, like me, are the smartest guys in the room, kind of my favorite team for next season, and they're going to come out of the NFL Draft.
Robert Mays: I'm not surprised at all. And if you're thinking about the path you want to take as a team at this stage, the Lions have given us that. They did. If you're starting from square one, the Lions fit here too. Because they had an expensive quarterback as part of that. He's not as expensive as Kyler Murray, but he's also not on a rookie contract. I'm not the one making peanuts.
So what do the Lions do in Year 1? They were competitive and awful. And in year two, the Lions add some pieces. And eventually you start to see what the vision is. By the end of the year, they're a team that can talk to themselves. I think if they had made the playoffs, they could have actually given someone a point. They were there by the end of that season.
I think that's enriching for this year's Cardinals team. But if you can make it into a team like six or he's 11, show real progress. And he'll be in his third year, 2025, and he'll be like, “Okay.” If they can add a piece here, a piece there, and get some growth from all of their previous selections, can they compete to be a wild card team?
I don't think that's at all inconceivable. And actually, based on last year, I think they're in a very good position to try to follow the Lions' blueprint here over the next few seasons.
