A Cardinals loss on Sunday paired with wins from both the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots moved Arizona up one slot to fifth in the NFL Draft order with two games to play.
The Cardinals and Titans are two of four teams with a 3-12 record through Week 16, and strength of schedule is the tiebreaker.
That’s where New England’s Sunday Night Football victory over the Baltimore Ravens came into the picture, as that result improved Tennessee’s strength of schedule.
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Arizona and Tennessee have the same opposing win percentage at .575. Their respective final two opponents also have the same records, so the SOS tiebreaker could be fluid over the next two weeks.
Even Monday Night Football could flip them, as a 49ers win over the Colts would drop Arizona back to sixth while an Indianapolis win would improve Tennessee’s strength of schedule.
The Athletic’s draft order model gave the Cardinals a 73% chance to finish with a top five pick after Sunday’s games.
The Cardinals lost 26-19 against the Atlanta Falcons, their seventh consecutive loss and 12th in the past 13 games. Arizona led 13-3 before the Falcons outscored the Cardinals 23-6 for the rest of the game.
Arizona visits the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams to end the season, a lame duck first game and possibly relevant finale, as the Rams jockey for playoff positioning in a juggernaut NFC.
Cardinals in NFL Draft order (remaining opponents)
- Giants 2-13 (Raiders, Cowboys)
- Raiders 2-13 (Giants, Chiefs)
- Browns 3-12 (Steelers, Bengals)
- Jets 3-12 (Patriots, Bills)
- Cardinals 3-12 (Bengals, Rams)
- Titans 3-12 (Saints, Jaguars)
- Commanders 4-11 (Cowboys, Eagles)
- Saints 5-10 (Titans, Falcons)
- Bengals 5-10 (Cardinals, Browns)
- Dolphins 6-9 (Buccaneers, Patriots)
This is a big week for the draft order, as the New York Giants visit the Las Vegas Raiders in a loser-likely-earns-the-top-pick showdown.
The Cleveland Browns host the Pittsburgh Steelers after playing the Buffalo Bills tough on Sunday (23-20 loss). Pittsburgh can win the AFC North with a victory.
The New York Jets have gotten blasted by 20-plus for three straight games and have the Patriots and Bills left on the schedule, so there’s not many reasons to expect much help there.
And the Titans have won two of their last three games and play the suddenly-frisky New Orleans Saints at home this week.
The Cardinals’ path to the top three appears to be to lose out and hope for a Browns win and either the Raiders or Giants to end the year with a couple garbage-time wins over non-playoff teams.
What does the latest mock draft say?
Pro Football Focus released a new mock draft on Monday, projecting the Cardinals go with offensive tackle Spencer Fano out of Utah with the No. 5 pick. Quarterbacks Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore flew off the board with the top two picks.
Quarterback remains a huge question mark for the Cardinals, but they don’t get the opportunity to address it in this mock draft. Instead, they focus on finding a partner for left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and go with Utah’s Spencer Fano, who earned an 83.7 PFF pass-blocking grade on true pass sets and PFF run-blocking grades above 75.0 on both zone and gap runs.
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