With four offensive tackles possibly going in the top 10, Kyler Murray should riot if the Arizona Cardinals don’t take one at No. 8 in the 2020 NFL Draft.
For Kyler Murray‘s sake, the Arizona Cardinals need to draft an offensive tackle.
There are a few teams picking in the top 10 of the 2020 NFL Draft where the decision-making isn’t all that hard. The Cincinnati Bengals need to draft Joe Burrow at No. 1, the Miami Dolphins need to draft a quarterback and the Cardinals need to draft an offensive tackle at No. 8. Fortunately for Arizona, this is a loaded offensive tackle draft class with four guys expected to go in the top 10.
Arizona seems to have gotten the quarterback position right with two bites at the apple in the last two drafts. Though Josh Rosen didn’t work out, Murray won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year last fall. He’s mobile and throws a beautiful spiral, but the Cardinals organization needs to prioritize fixing its wet paper bag of an offensive line yesterday. They have to draft a tackle at No. 8 overall.
The Cardinals are certainly capable of picking one of these four players: Alabama’s Jedrick Wills Jr., Iowa’s Tristan Wirfs, Georgia’s Andrew Thomas and Louisville’s Mekhi Becton. Wills may be off the board as early as No. 4 overall to the New York Giants, but there is a chance four quarterbacks could be taken within the first six picks. He’s not likely to be a Cardinal, but Wills could be.
Wirfs is probably the next guy off the board. He feels like the one offensive tackle prospect who could contend with Wills as the first guy taken at his position in the draft, but him going to the Giants at No. 4 seems like a bit of a reach. Wirfs feels like a guy who will go in the No. 7 to No. 10-range, right where the Cardinals are picking at No. 8. He could very well be a Cardinal in 2020.
Thomas had the best collegiate success of any offensive tackle entering the draft out of Georgia. He might go as high as the Carolina Panthers at No. 7, but he could go just as likely to the Cardinals at No. 8, the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 9, the Cleveland Browns at No. 10 or even the New York Jets at No. 11. If Wirfs isn’t the offensive tackle Arizona takes, it’ll probably be Thomas.
Becton had an outstanding NFL combine in Indianapolis a few weeks ago. He may have very well forced four offensive tackles into the top 10 of this spring’s draft. Becton should be available for the Cardinals at No. 8, but he feels more likely to go to the teams picking after Arizona like Jaguars, the Browns and the Jets.
Overall, there are no excuses for Cardinals general manager Steve Keim to draft any player other than an offensive tackle at No. 8. Though he shouldn’t trade up, Keim is not really going to make a terrible decision by taking any of these four offensive line prospects. If Arizona comes out of the first-round without a guy whose job it is to keep the quarterback upright, Murray should riot.