2. Arizona Cardinals might “tank” into #1 pick in 2024, could want Caleb Williams, and might want to trade Murray anyway

No team is truly going to make tanking at the forefront of what they do, but I don’t think anyone is fooled by the Arizona Cardinals in 2023. They have a new GM, head coach, and a horridly thin roster. I’m not sure they have more than three players of note. It’s just a bad roster that needs a ton of love.

The team is likely angling towards 2025-ish as a hopeful rebound for the franchise, which had a nice year in 2021. Well, the new-look Cardinals might not be as bad in future years as they’ll likely be in 2023. This is likely going to be the worst year of this new regime that we’ll see from them. If that’s the case and the Cardinals do earn the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, why wouldn’t they select Caleb Williams?

Williams, a Heisman-winning quarterback from USC, is another Lincoln Riley product, just like Kyler Murray was. However, many are pegging Williams as being as good or as close to as good of a prospect as guys like Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning were. Caleb Williams appears to be in rare air. More, with new GM Monti Ossenfort and new HC Jonathan Gannon in town, they might prefer to reset their QB situation and pick someone that they truly want instead of sticking with Murray.

Murray was given a contract extension by the previous regime and really has no ties to the current one. Furthermore, Murray’s contract is actually very moveable in 2024. If the Cardinals were to trade him in 2024 as a post-June 1st designation, the team would save nearly $39 million on their cap space and would incur about $13 million in dead money. The cap savings greatly outweigh the dead money, so it’s a move I could see the team make.

The Cardinals may not have a ton of leverage either if they have the #1 pick in 2024. Just about everyone would know they’d likely be selecting Caleb Williams, so Murray’s trade value would not be as high because of that.