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Cardinals Draft Primer 2023: Edge

Will Anderson is The Man, but there are options beyond the top guy

Primer.Edge

The Cardinals, with eight draft picks and with the No. 3 overall selection, have a chance in GM Monti Ossenfort's first season to begin to build a roster that is desperate for an infusion of youthful talent. The draft begins April 27 – held in Kansas City, Missouri – but before then, azcardinals.com will take a look at each position and how the Cardinals may look at them on draft weekend.

Draft primer: Edge

Players under contract: Victor Dimukeje, Dennis Gardeck, Myjai Sanders, Cameron Thomas, Jesse Luketa

Need: High

The Cardinals' situation: The Cardinals need someone dynamic off the edge as a pass rusher. Sanders and Thomas, 2022 third-round picks, had their moments. But there is not a player right now who frightens opposing offenses, the guy Chandler Jones was for most of his time in Arizona. There is a reason – OK, there are many reasons – why Alabama edge Will Anderson is being consistently mocked to the Cardinals in all of the pretend drafts.

The draft class: The players available, and the Cardinals' spot third in the second round (which is 34 this season since the Dolphins had to forfeit their first-round pick), could still line them up for a good prospect. But that's only if they pass on Anderson at No. 3. Even if the Cardinals were to trade down from No. 3, there guys like Georgia's Nolan Smith, Texas Tech's Tyree Wilson and Clemson's Myles Murphy, who could all be first-round picks.

The conclusion: The Cardinals will draft an edge. It very well could be in the first round but it will be at some point. Coach Jonathan Gannon needs pass rush pressure and this is the time to get one. If it ends up being Anderson, this may be the most anticlimactic pick the Cardinals have had in a long time – including the year they took Kyler Murray.

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