The Cardinals haven’t had any great fifth-round picks but also not any terrible ones in the last decade.
The 2025 NFL draft will commence soon, on Thursday, April 24 with the first round. Rounds 2 and 3 will follow on Friday with the remaining four rounds on Saturday the 26th.
The Arizona Cardinals have selections in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh rounds.
Let’s look at the last several years of picks and see how those picks have worked out.
Below are the last 10 years of fifth-round picks for the Cardinals.
The last 10 years of Cardinals fifth-round picks
2024: OLB Xavier Thomas, OL Christian Jones
2023: QB Clayton Tune, LB Owen Pappoe
2022: None (part of trade for TE Zach Ertz)
2021: None (part of trade to move up and draft CB Marco Wilson)
2020: None (used in 2019 supplementary draft to acquire S Jalen Thompson)
2019: S Deionte Thompson
2018: None (part of trade to move up and draft QB Josh Rosen)
2017: OL Will Holden, RB T.J. Logan
2016: S Marqui Christian, OL Cole Toner
The successes
The only real true success the Cardinals have had in the last decade with a fifth-round pick was Thompson, a supplementary draft pick.
Pappoe has shown promise, but is still just a special teams player. Thomas showed flashes as a rookie last season and Jones started a game at the end of the season.
There haven’t been any true busts, as fifth-round picks never come in with big expectations. All have contributed in some way during their time in the NFL.
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