Arizona Cardinals 2026 NFL Draft Grades were not kind to the team

The Arizona Cardinals introduce their first-round draft pickrunning back Jeremiyah Loveduring a news conference at the Cardinals Dignity Health training facility on April 24, 2026, in Tempe, Ariz. | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For the Arizona Cardinals the proof will be in the product.

That is what happens when you have not really earned much in terms of runway when it comes to your drafts being good.

Monti Ossenfort in his career has had three draft classes (the 2026 being his fourth) and has nary a Pro Bowl player to show for it.

So, when Rene Bugner compiled his 2026 NFL Draft Team Grades to give the GPA's for each team, it makes sense that the Cardinals draft, which was fairly 50/50 in the love-hate category for NFL Draft analysts, was one of the worst graders.

The nice part is two of the teams in their division are below them, so maybe they can catch up if this draft class hits.

Here are the grades.

2026 NFL Draft Team Grades

In my annual draft grades round-up, I have compiled 24 different evaluations and calculated the GPA for all 32 teams.
I sorted the evaluations by GPA as well. From left (soft) to right (hard graders).
Thanks to all who give out grades every year! pic.twitter.com/VysunPaW9H

- Rene Bugner (@RNBWCV) April 27, 2026

The Cardinals only received one A" grade in this class, from Chad Reuter of NFL.com, but he also is one of the easiest graders as a whole (not to take anything away from the A", just an observation.) From there, it was a lot of B's" and C's" with a smattering of D's" in there.

The D's" came from Sharp Football, who hates running back values so that makes sense, For the Win, and I don't know who that is, someone from Kicker, someone from RotoWorld and someone from another country(?) I believe.

The 2.36 GPA is the equivalent of a C+, or as google explains it:

A 2.36 GPA is below the 3.0 national average, roughly equivalent to a C+ grade, and indicates significant academic challenges .

I think we can put that in football terms and agree, there have been significant challenges for this franchise under Monti Oseenfort. So, while this is a GPA for 2026, it really does feel like a great look at what Monti has done for three seasons, and may even be slightly generous.