Another Team Removes Themselves From Trading Up With Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals have one less candidate to work with when finding teams to trade with in the NFL Draft.

The Arizona Cardinals undoubtedly have a few teams calling for their No. 3 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and the organization fully intends on taking advantage of a top heavy quarterback market to gain some valuable draft ammo for this and next year's draft as the rebuild in the desert gets underway. 

With such a high pick, the Cardinals will receive interest from teams such as the Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Las Vegas Raiders, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans to name a few. 

Of course, only one team will actually seal the deal with Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort when it comes time to do business. 

That pick apparently won't be going to Las Vegas, as Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer said he doesn't believe the Raiders will trade up to No. 3:

"I also don’t believe the Raiders will trade up, because there are enough needs in the middle of the roster to where my sense would be that Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels will have a good volume of picks. And if I had to guess, I’d say it won’t be a quarterback at No. 7. The player I have circled early on for Vegas is Witherspoon. He played for McDaniels’s old staff mate Bret Bielema at Illinois. He played at a needed position. His makeup, I’m told, is top notch," Breer said. 

"Why look so closely at the quarterbacks, then? Two reasons. One, picking that high, with quarterbacks expected to go in that range, you need to know what you’d be passing on, at a baseline—and maybe someone blows you away, and you wind up taking him. Two, it doesn’t hurt, from a trade perspective, to have other teams thinking you might take one."

The Raiders - who signed Jimmy Garoppolo in the offseason - aren't pressed on finding a quarterback, at least in terms of giving up some major draft assets to move up. If anything, there's rumblings they want to move out of their current position at No. 7. 

Las Vegas' pick could have been a sweet spot for the Cardinals, as they likely would have received another future first-round pick in a deal to drop down four spots while still being in prime position to select an elite defensive prospect.