Cardinals Rank First in Rookie Spending

The Arizona Cardinals have opened their wallets for their 2024 draft class.

Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Christian Jones (75) during organized team activities at the Dignity Health Arizona Cardinals Training Center on May 28, 2024. / Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals reeled in a historic rookie class once the dust settled on the 2024 NFL Draft.

A total of 12 players were drafted by the Cardinals, the most of any team in the league this offseason while also taking the crown for the largest single class since 1992.

GM Monti Ossenfort - who just completed his second draft as head man in Arizona - has opened the wallet a bit more than the rest of the league.

With 11 players officially signed from their draft class, the Cardinals lead the NFL in rookie spending at $97.4 million in total money for their draft picks according to Spotrac.

The next closest are the Patriots at $64.9 million.

NFL Draft Pick Spending

1. Arizona Cardinals - $97.4 million
2. New England Patriots - $64.9 million
3. Los Angeles Rams - $61 million
4. Tennessee Titans - $57.2 million
5. New York Giants - $56.7 million

There's little wiggle room for draft contracts to be negotiated in terms of overall structure, so the large bill on Ossenfort's desk was expected.

The Cardinals also finished the first two days (rounds 1-3) with seven picks (which included two firsts), so their top spending extended much further than the typical team.

Arizona was dead last in undrafted free agent spending with $8.5 million. The large draft class played a massive part in keeping the Cardinals at the bottom of the barrel when it came to UDFA's.

Assistant general manager Dave Sears offered this on why they didn't prioritize undrafted free agents thanks to the large draft class:

“This year we ended up lowering that amount just because our roster is almost up to the 90 man limit. I think we might have 86 to 88 right now. I don't have the exact number in front of me, but we didn't have to go out and sign 10 to 13 UDFA’s like some years. You’ll see some teams do that right now, but we had a full roster. We like the guys we have in the building right now, so we didn't need to go chase them in addition to having—we ended up with 12 picks. If we had seven picks then we *(would have been) signing five more guys.”

Running back Trey Benson remains the lone unsigned player from Arizona's draft class.

The Cardinals are fifth in Top 51 cap space on Spotrac with $34 million at their disposal.