Arizona Cardinals 7-Round 2022 NFL Mock Draft: Supporting Kyler Murray

Round 7, 258th Overall: Brock Purdy, QB, Iowa State

This pick is equal parts functional and sentimental. Colt McCoy, the Arizona Cardinals backup quarterback is set to hit free agency this offseason, and Arizona needs another quarterback. But they would likely want to avoid taking one too high and risk invoking the ire of their current franchise quarterback, Kyler Murray. Brock Purdy satisfies those conditions and has the added bonus of being from the state of Arizona.

Purdy played his high school football at Perry High School in Gilbert, AZ, which is less than an hour away from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ, where the Cardinals play their home games. The 258th pick of the draft is the 4th-to-last overall pick and nabbing a local kid with a lot of experience (48 collegiate games played) and some decent numbers last year (3,188 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, eight interceptions) just makes sense.

The 6’1” 220-pound Purdy has also proved he can move around a little bit as he tallied 1,177 rushing yards and 19 rushing TDs over his four-year career at Iowa State. He also joined his Iowa State teammates Breece Hall, Charlie Kolar, Will McDonald IV, and Mike Rose on the AP All-Big 12 first team last year.

Speaking of Breece Hall, in this particular mock draft, I have the Cardinals taking him in the third round. What better way to ease the transition from college to the pros than bringing on his college quarterback that he shared the backfield with for three seasons? We’ve seen multiple teams do this in recent years (the Bengals with Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, the Dolphins with Tua Tagovailoa and Jaylen Waddle, the Eagles with Jalen Hurts and Devonta Smith, and the Jaguars with Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne) to varying degrees of success. The Arizona Cardinals can do it here by only investing a middle and late round pick.