LA Rams dazzled by Arizona Cardinals sudden draft deftness

Move over wheelin' and dealin' LA Rams GM Les Snead. There is a new riverboat gambler in the 2023 NFL Draft, and his name in Monti Ossenfort. Monti Ossenfort was the player personnel director for the Tennessee Titans, and replaces former Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim in the Cardinals front office. Ossenfort wasted no time in dealing multiple times for the Arizona Cardinals.

Normally, the Arizona Cardinals have been a bit of a punch line in the NFC West Division. But I have to say that after a pretty stellar Day 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Cardinals may not be in the basement of the NFC West for long. It all began with a trade package that they received by trading out of the third overall pick to the Houston Texans:

To help visualize the exchange, the trade looked like this:

Converting a 2023 Round 1 pick into 2023 and 2024 Round 1 picks, and knowing that the 2024 NFL Draft is highly regarded, was pretty impressive, But the Cardinals were not done yet, as the team then moved back up from the 12th overall pick to the sixth overall pick held by the Detroit Lions.

There is at least one report of the Detroit Lions getting an additional pick at 168. From there, the Cardinals landed the first offensive tackle in the 2023 NFL Draft. He is Ohio State Paris Johnson Jr. and he was touted as one of the most technically sound offensive tackles in the 2023 NFL Draft class.

The Arizona Cardinals landed the Top OT, Moved up one spot in Round 2, and landed a first-round and a third-round draft pick in the 2024 NFL Draft for the cost of a fourth-round pick. I don't want to sound alarmist or anything, but the deftness of that draft dance is rather impressive. Hopefully, the LA Rams draft experience on Day 2 will be equally as impressive.