April 13, 2026, 8:45 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL draft is a little more than a week away and we have more mock drafts and projections to cover. In a new mock draft<\/a> from NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice, the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> wheel and deal, and they end up with two first-round picks.<\/p>\n After the Las Vegas Raiders take quarterback Fernando Mendoza first overall, the New York Jets get LB\/EDGE Arvell Reese, which prompts a trade. The Cardinals, instead of taking pass rusher Davis Bailey, make a deal with the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n The Cowboys covet Bailey, the nation’s leader in sacks last season, and send the Cardinals both their first-round draft picks \u2014 No. 12 and No. 20, which they acquired from the Green Bay Packers for pass rusher Micah Parsons.<\/p>\n Who do the Cardinals get with two first-round selections?<\/p>\n Round 1, No. 12 overall: Miami OT Francis Mauigoa<\/p>\n The Cardinals want to draft a tackle. Mauigoa has been projected to the Cardinals with the third pick, so getting him 12th overall and getting to select another player in the first round is huge.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n He could immediately step into the starting lineup at right tackle.<\/p>\n Then, they make a splash.<\/p>\n Round 1, No. 20 overall: Alabama QB Ty Simpson<\/p>\n Some continue to insist the Cardinals are into Simpson and even willing to trade up to get him. Now, if they are able to get him in a trade back like this proposed deal with the Cowboys, it’s not so bad. They would have turned the third pick into Mauigoa and Simpson.<\/p>\n It’s better than giving up assets to get him, but is he really going to be the franchise guy? If that’s what they think, then they should go for it.<\/p>\n So a tackle and a quarterback in Round 1 isn’t bad, but it leaves the Cardinals still lacking another threat to get to the quarterback off the edge.<\/p>\n Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 13, 2026, 8:45 p.m. MT The 2026 NFL draft is a little more than a week away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33,102,104,103,17131,17132,44,1586,35123,4585,1593,1576,42,39,16008,46,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-248808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","13":"tag-sstsncardinals","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","16":"tag-tagfantasy-sports","17":"tag-tagmicah-parsons","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnfl","20":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","21":"tag-tagsec-conference-football","22":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}