Best Available Talent for the Arizona Cardinals entering Day 2 of the NFL Draft

Zaven Collins was to many, a surprise pick for the Arizona Cardinals given their needs.

He was essentially, a Steve Keim pick: a small school linebacker who checked all the boxes with his athleticism, his leadership and the fact that he’s a big dude who runs fast and is smart.

The best comp. I could think of was “Derrick Henry as a linebacker”...so what does Arizona do in round 2?

Let’s take a look at a few positions of need and some players who have Round 2 grades from Dane Brugler of The Athletic outside of some obvious ones: QB, LB, Specialists.

OFFENSIVE LINE:

-Teven Jenkins

-Samuel Cosmi

-Liam Eichenberg

-Quinn Meinerz

RUNNING BACK:

-Javante Williams

TIGHT END:

-Pat Friermuth

WIDE RECEIVER

-Elijah Moore

-Terrace Marshall Jr.

-Rondale Moore

-Dyami Brown

DEFENSIVE LINE:

-Azeez Olajuwari

-Carlos Basham Jr.

CORNERBACK/SAFETY:

-Trevon Moehrig

-Asante Samuel Jr.

-Elijah Molden

-Kelvin Joseph

-Tysom Campbell

-Ifeatu Melifonwu

All in all?

I think that there’s a good chance that Arizona ends up looking at trading down (for real) or finding a corner or a receiver.

Corner due to need, but when examining the team’s current starters...they have likely now 8 guys under contract on the defensive side who are starters coming back (not counting Collins taking over for Hicks, Jones/Butler/Alford) and only...5 returning starters on the offensive side under contract in Kyler, Hopkins, Humphries, Beachum and Hudson.

That’s quite a bit of positional need with two receivers, two tight ends, two guards and 1-2 running backs at this point overall.

To me, I’d lean toward a pick on offense to balance that out given the sheer investment into the defensive side via the draft and the offense through free agency.

One position that sticks out like a sore thumb is Tight End with one guy in Pat Friermuth who might replace a bit of Dan Arnold’s role with a bit more blocking upside.

As of right now, I’ll guess that he ends up the pick for Arizona given the value, the need (12 personnel is used a lot with Kugler’s run scheme) and fact that I think the earlier picks at corner and receiver go quickly.

What do you think?