Cardinals worry about WR later in McShay’s new NFL mock draft

Back in mid-December, the Arizona Cardinals sat sixth in the pecking order for the 2020 NFL Draft.

A strong finish to the regular season slid them back to eighth, but that change has little to do with a tweak in perspective from ESPN’s Todd McShay. The NFL Draft analyst’s first mock draft for 2020 had Arizona selecting quarterback Kyler Murray’s old Oklahoma teammate, receiver CeeDee Lamb, with its first-round pick.

Now in version 2.0 of his mock draft, McShay has the Cardinals going after Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs even with Lamb still on the board. Lamb, in fact, doesn’t get selected until 15th in McShay’s latest mock draft.

Maybe McShay no longer views Lamb as a top-10 prospect. But he explains that he went offensive tackle over receiver for a different reason.

The possibility of former Sooners teammate CeeDee Lamb running routes for Kyler Murray is going to be something to watch for at No. 8, but don’t forget that teams need to protect their quarterback first. The Cardinals gave up 50 sacks this past season (fifth worst in the NFL), not something you want to see when you just invested a No. 1 overall pick on a 5-foot-10 QB. Throw in the fact that they could lose D.J. Humphries and Marcus Gilbert and the pass-protection upside of the 6-foot-5 Wirfs starts to make even more sense. Get a difference-maker in front of Murray and then worry about help out wide on Day 2, when plenty of pass-catchers will be waiting to be snatched up.

Wirfs has been a popular Cardinals pick by mock drafts of late.

He’s a physically-imposing lineman and one who should be able to step in immediately even if the Cardinals bring back Humphries.

To McShay’s point about the deep receiver class, there should be opportunity for Arizona to get starting-caliber talent with their second- or third-round selections.

ESPN’s big board has nine receivers among the top 50 best prospects and 18 among the top 100.

ESPN’s top WRs in 2020 NFL Draft

Jerry Jeudy, Alabama (7)
CeeDee Lamb, Oklahoma (10)
Henry Ruggs III, Alabama (20)
Justin Jefferson, LSU (26)
Tee Higgins, Clemson (27)
Laviska Shenault Jr, Colorado (30)
Brandon Aiyuk, Arizona State (31)
K.J. Hamler, Penn State (39)
Van Jefferson, Florida (40)
Michael Pittman Jr., USC (52)
Devin Duvernay, Texas (57)
Donovan Peoples-Jones, Michigan (67)
Denzel Mims, Baylor (74)
Jalen Reagor, TCU (75)
K.J. Hill, Ohio State (78)
Bryan Edwards, South Carolina (81)
Collin Johnson, Texas (85)
Quartney Davis, Texas A&M (90)

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