The Gambo 5: Predicting whom the Arizona Cardinals pick 1st in 2024

Apr 24, 2024, 12:05 PM

Co-host of Burns & Gambo

The Gambo 5 is back! After having a lot of fun and success in correctly predicting whom the Cardinals would take in the NFL Draft with their first-round pick, we’re prepared for the 2024 version. The Gambo 5 model is simple: I give you five players and I expect one of them to be the pick.

In the past, we nailed Haason Reddick, Zaven Collins, Isaiah Simmons and even had Josh Rosen as the only quarterback the Cardinals would move up for in the 2018 draft.

Now this year is going to be a little different because there is at least a 50-50 chance the Cardinals will not be picking at No. 4. They could make a trade.

So this year, we will give you five players we believe the Cardinals will take if they are picking fourth or in any of the spots we think they could move down and then back into. The fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth spots could be in play as we look respectively at the Chargers, Titans, Falcons and Bears as trade partners if Arizona trades out of the top-10 and then tries to trade back in.

We have to consider this option. Last season, that is exactly what general manager Monti Ossenfort did. This year, we will be heavily focused on the top three wideouts, who are all considered difference-makers. But let’s also concentrate on what two players they could take if they are in a position where those players are gone.

We will focus on two areas: protecting the quarterback and disrupting the quarterback. Now, I will say we usually just give you five players at one spot in the draft, so we expanded our horizons a little bit here. But if the Cardinals do trade out of the top 10 and cannot get back into the top 10, then this list is null and void as I cannot predict a player at a draft spot I do not know.

So without further ado: