Arizona Cardinals didn't have serious trade talks for No. 3 pick

Leading up to the start of the 2026 NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals were a team that reportedly wanted to trade out of the third overall pick. A pair of teams, the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, were interested in moving up.

However, it turns out that the Cardinals never had any serious conversations about trading the third pick, at least if we are to believe general manager Monti Ossenfort.

"There were very minimal conversations, some surface-level, but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move off the pick," Ossenfort said after the first round.

Before they made running back Jeremiyah Love the third overall pick in the draft, there was a bit of a delay, leading many to believe they were in trade talks with a team. That wasn't the case.

"We had the wrong phone number (for Love)," he explained. "The phone number that we were given was the wrong one, and so that was a little bit of the delay. But we got that straightened out, and we called Jeremiyah and got a hold of him. That is what the delay was — technical difficulties."

The Cardinals have executed seven draft-day trades since Ossenfort became general manager in 2023.

They did consider trading back into the first round, but nothing materialized.

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