Cardinals' reported timeline for trading No. 4 pick could cause Arizona some problems

While any number of teams could trade out of the top five, most people’s eyes have naturally gravitated to the Arizona Cardinals picking at No. 4 in the 2024 NFL Draft. With the Chicago Bears taking Caleb Williams first, as well as the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots expected to take quarterbacks second and third, Arizona is an ideal trade-back candidate in all this.

However, the way that Arizona general manager Monti Ossenfort wants to do business may come back to haunt the Cardinals. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Ossenfort does not want to part ways with the No. 4 overall until the Cardinals are on the clock. He wants to see how the draft board manifests after the first three picks. That could be advantageous for him, but it could also backfire.

Assuming the draft goes as expected, Williams will go No. 1 to Chicago, followed by Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye to Washington and New England in some order. This would leave J.J. McCarthy still on the board for a team like the Minnesota Vikings picking at No. 11 to trade up to No. 4 in a deal with the Cardinals. The juice may not be worth the squeeze, especially compared to if Maye were to fall.

Of course, the Cardinals could just take the best player available at No. 4 in Marvin Harrison Jr…

Simply put, teams who may want to trade up for a quarterback may have already run out of patience.

Arizona Cardinals might run out of time to trade the No. 4 overall pick

Honestly, I don’t really hate Ossenfort’s gameplan here. He already demonstrated great wheeling and dealing tactics during his first draft in charge last year. Ossenfort moved up and down the draft board to get the guys he wanted to revamp this rebuilding team, while collecting more and more precious draft capital along the way. Frankly, he does not even need to trade back here because of Harrison.

To me, unless the Cardinals get a Godfather offer for the No. 4 pick from someone like Minnesota, Denver or Las Vegas, just do the sensible thing and take Harrison with that selection. It is exceedingly rare for a player to be as good of a player coming out as his father. Marvin Harrison Sr. was a stud collegiately at Syracuse before becoming one of the NFL’s greatest wide receivers with Indianapolis.

Overall, it does seem like Ossenfort is losing sleep over what teams like Washington and New England could do picking ahead of them. Again, the Cardinals do not need a quarterback, as they already have their franchise guy in Kyler Murray. There is no reason to fret about getting leap frogged by a team picking in the teens because Arizona does not need a quarterback in this loaded NFL Draft.

The only cause for concern is if they are not sold on Harrison and want to trade back from No. 4.