The Arizona Cardinals add some beef into their interior offensive line in Mel Kiper Jr.’s first mock draft.
As Mock Drafts come and go the guy who started the draft industry complex, Mel Kiper Jr. is one we will always check in on.
Mel dropped his 2025 NFL Mock Draft 1.0 today and he has the Arizona Cardinals beefing up their interior offensive line
From E$PN+:
16. Arizona Cardinals
Tyler Booker, G, Alabama
I’d love for Arizona to land a pass rusher here after it finished 26th in pressure rate (28.6%), but the board isn’t cooperating. It’d be a reach to Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr., Marshall’s Mike Green or Texas A&M’s Nic Scourton. General manager Monti Ossenfort is known to trade around in the first round, so maybe he’ll get an offer for the No. 16 pick — someone interested in Ashton Jeanty? — and be able to move back, get an edge rusher and add more picks. But if the Cardinals stay home and things play out like this, I’m eyeing another position.
Arizona might not return guards Will Hernandez or Evan Brown (both free agents), and it has to keep the interior offensive line strong for its run game. Booker might be the best pure guard in the class. He’s strong at the point of attack, and no one gets past him. And he’s rugged in the run game, getting to the second level to clear lanes.
It makes sense at this stage of the offseason for the Cardinals to project a guard. As Kiper points out, they don’t have either starter back as of now, so getting younger and a little healthier means continuing to have a good run game intact.
How would the rest of the draft play out? It seems likely at this point that Monti and company will be moving down, as it is the talk of the draft town as of now, but in Kiper’s scenario, this makes some sense.