Well, no, the title is not a joke, but it is a bit misleading, but some truth to it after keeping it eye on it since last week.
NFL draft analyst Todd McShay on his podcast said for the Cardinals, trading out of the third overall pick would not be a move that they would shy away from, and the Dallas Cowboys have enough capital to make a move for that pick, and it would help them in a major way.
McShay said: “Trading out of three remains one of the priorities, or one of the things that could absolutely happen with Arizona.”
“There’s a lot of buzz about Dallas, and when it comes to the noise, with Dallas trading up from 12 to three to get Bailey, right?” McShay said on his podcast (h/t Bleacher Report).
But how closely do teams actually match up the
Smoke & Mirrors?
Just because someone said it on a podcast, regardless of how trustworthy they are or not, does not mean that is going to happen or even come close, but the Cardinals have not yet come out and said otherwise.
McShay noted that the Cardinals may instead trade back “one or two spots,” should the franchise trade out of No. 3, in order to target a player like Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love instead.
The Cowboys are heading into the 2026 NFL draft with eight picks, including Nos. 12 and 20 in the first round and No. 92 in the third.
Everyone has their thoughts about what will happen or what should happen, but these guys are a lot closer to the situation than most, and if the odd thing I find is that if Dallas happened to make that move, everyone is saying they would target Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey.
Bailey posted 76 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, 71 pressures, 8 run stops, 3 forced fumbles, 4 pass breakups.
A transfer from Stanford, he had 14.5 sacks over three seasons for the Cardinals, and he matched that total in 2025 alone after notably becoming more of a finisher. His 20.2% pressure rate was the best in the nation in 2025.
Look, if the Cowboys somehow did make this move either before or during the draft it would probably be the most exciting thing Jerry Jones has done maybe since he made Terrell Ownes a Dallas Cowboy.
I never buy into this type of stuff because it never happens for Dallas and trust me I was surprised when he traded for George Pickens and Quinnen Williams and beyond happy he did that, but moving up to the third overall pick would overtake all of this.
The Cowboys defensive line as now is good on paper, but they are missing a pass rusher to set it over the top. Trading Micah Parsons and pretty much getting Kenny Clark, Williams and Rashad Gary all back plus a first round pick was a great move in the long run.
Dallas would be targeting Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey.
Now they need that guy to get the sacks, and making a move like this would probably do it.
At the end of the day, I would not buy into this that much, but we will see what happens. If this was a better draft for quarterbacks, I would say no way that the Cardinals would trade out of the third overall pick, but it will probably be the worst year for QBs since god knows when.
This is still something to keep an eye on because the draft is just about three weeks away and everything seems to still be on the table and if Jerry pulls off a move like this maybe it would give us a reason to not hate him AS much.
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