NFL draft grades: Arizona Cardinals' rookie class is middle of the pack

The 2025 season for the Arizona Cardinals was rough. They dealt with injuries, losses and more. They had a draft class they were excited about, but injuries kept it from being as good as it was believed their could be.

They had big contributions from many rookies, but in Gennaro Filice's draft grades and rankings for all 32 NFL teams for NFL.com, they didn't rank particularly high.

They were ranked 18th in the league and got a grade of a B-minus.

If I were grading purely on flashes, Arizona’s first couple picks would push this group way up the board. Walter Nolen dealt with leg injuries throughout 2025, starting the season on the PUP list and ending it on injured reserve. This limited him to six games and a grand total of 161 snaps. But in that extremely limited sample size, the defensive tackle demonstrated the kind of interior disruption that made him a first-round pick, with two sacks, two pass deflections, five tackles for loss, five QB hits and 13 pressures (NGS). The man even scored a touchdown with a heads-up feat of athleticism. Will Johnson also battled health problems -- routinely popping up on the injury report with myriad issues -- but he was able to suit up for 12 games, piling up a whopping 10 PBUs in the process. If both these guys can get right physically, the Cardinals could have a pair of plus starters at premium positions. And with the immediate returns from Day 3 picks Cody Simon (69 tackles with stretches as the green-dot play-caller) and Denzel Burke (three INTs, 11 PBUs), this might ultimately prove to be a transformational defensive draft in Arizona.

All their draft picks played. Five started at least one game. However, they only got flashes from Nolen and Johnson. Simon played a lot, but when he entered the lineup to replace Mack Wilson, who was injured, the defense was terrible and they never won a game again, so it is hard to tell if Simon is actually good.

Fryar was a surprise and perhaps could be an answer at right tackle moving forward.

Burke was a surprise. He played well enough to push 2024 second-round pick to the bench. But with a new coaching staff, we will see if they can continue on their trajectory or if they will be out of place.

In all, it wasn't a bad year for their draft class, but they were missing true impact.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals' rookie class gets okay grades