Francis Mauigoa continues to get lots of love as Cardinals’ potential No. 3 pick
If the Cardinals are going to turn things around and have sustained success, upgrading the offensive line is key. Francis Mauigoa can help with that.
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If the Arizona Cardinals are going to turn things around and have sustained success, upgrading the offensive line is a must.
With the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, the Cardinals can do just that with the selection of Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, the top offensive line prospect in the draft.
Shoring up right tackle is key to Arizona’s immediate and future outlook. Mauigoa fills that need on both accounts.
Just about everyone understands that.
Mauigoa continues to be the most commonly linked prospect to Arizona’s No. 3 overall pick as mock draft season rolls along. The latest pairings come courtesy of NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah and The Athletic’s pool of beat writers.
Adding those two in, Mauigoa has been linked to the Cardinals in 62 of the 160 mock drafts tallied in this year’s Arizona Sports Mock Draft Tracker. The next closest prospect is Ohio State’s Arvell Reese with 24. Texas Tech’s David Bailey is right behind Reese at 22.
And after seeing general manager Monti Ossenfort fail to properly lock down the right tackle spot through free agency in recent seasons, opting for a plug-and-play starter in the first round of the draft isn’t a bad move by any means.
The franchise isn’t that far removed from the Jonah Williams experiment.
The 2024 free-agent signing was supposed to shore up the right side of the line, with Paris Johnson Jr. making the no-brainer move to left tackle full time.
Instead, Williams’ Arizona tenure was plagued with injury and poor play across the past two seasons. A reunion between the two sides this offseason should not happen.
As for the potential right tackle options currently on Arizona’s roster, new signing Elijah Wilkinson figures to be the leader in the clubhouse after 17 starts for Atlanta last year. Josh Fryar, who started five of 12 games for Arizona as an undrafted rookie last year, and Christian Jones round out potential options.
Throw Mauigoa into the mix, though, and he quickly becomes the man to watch at the position.
Adding Mauigoa on a rookie deal plus picking up Johnson’s fifth-year option and/or extending the left tackle would give Arizona a pair of cornerstones at two major positions of need for years to come.
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Comments
25 Comments
Francis Mauigoa is not Levi Brown ILMAO that’s a horrible comparison with zero basis in reality. We’re not taking a RB at 3 because good RBs are a dime a dozen in the modern NFL, only a fool takes a RB 3rd overall I don’t care how good he is. Saquon really worked wonders for the Giants, and I don’t remember AP ever winning a SB in Minnesota. Games are won and lost in the trench’s, there’s a reason tackles get paid a heck of a lot more than RBs do.
That’s the pick to make. Arizona drafts Mauigoa and they have a top 5-10 OL next season w/ the talent they have up front with an elite young LT, top 5 OG, top 10 C, above RG between Pryor/Adams n a mauler like Mauigoa at RT. If AZ really wants Ty Simpson he will benefit greatly from having an Elite OL for a young QB to develop under.
Then trade 35 and our 2nd next year to go up and get Ty Simpson between 20-25 in RD1 and you have your future core in place. At this point you might as well use their early 3rd round pick for a WR with elite speed who can play inside/out like Skylar Bell n take DT Landon Robinson top of rd4 . That would be one heck of a draft setting AZ up well for the future with enough talent to compete in the NFC this year.
Proud of my big ol' U hoss, but NFL football is nothing more than a form of entertainment. O-Lineman are the least entertaining players in the entire sport.
If the Cards trade down to around pick ten and get The Smashing Samoan Mad Maui, I'd be for that. But 3 is high for an O-lineman.
As for entertainment, I'll acknowledge that former Rams HOF beast Orlando Pace, responsible for creating the "pancake" stat, was pretty entertaining during his time. But nothing like him has appeared since.