Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort had a big task ahead of him leading up to the 2023 NFL Draft. His first year as the franchise’s roster architect and decision maker would be a challenging one.
His franchise was lost at sea after a 4-13 season. With holes to plug just about everywhere, limited salary cap space with which to work, a locked-in young quarterback and a new head coach, Ossenfort’s first moves would dictate whether the team’s rebuild would end in success or disappointment. The obvious first step was to move the third overall pick in exchange for the kind of trade haul that could provide a foundation for the future.
He found that return with the Houston Texans, who shipped the 12th and 33rd selections in 2023 as well as Houston’s first and third-round picks in 2024 westward in exchange for the third and 105th overall picks in 2023. It was a deal that skewed significantly in the Cardinals’ favor and set the stage for a revival in Arizona.
Now, thanks to the Cardinals’ media team, we know how those negotiations between Ossenfort and Texans general manager Nick Caserio wrapped up:
The negotiation begins at 36 seconds.
The conversation with Caserio is especially interesting. While the video makes it clear the two had engaged in trade talks leading up to draft night, it drops us into the last-minute negotiations that led to Houston dealing away a full-blown haul in order to draft Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson Jr.. Most notably, the Texans’ general manager never mentions including the Cleveland Browns’ 2024 first round pick — owed in the deal that sent Deshaun Watson north despite more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct and what the NFL itself described as “predatory behavior” — instead of the team’s own.
Was that a concept that had been rejected outright in prior discussions? Was it a case of Caserio betting on himself and believing his team’s pick will be less valuable than the Browns’ next spring? It’s unclear, but the odds are pretty good that a Houston team with work left to be done in its rebuild will ship a pretty valuable Day 1 selection Arizona’s way in 2024.
Later in the half-hour video, we get to see Ossenfort wheel and deal with the Detroit Lions in order to jump the line and make Paris Johnson Jr. the first offensive tackle selected in 2023. It’s even more indicative of the hustle he had to put in as picks ticked by in 10 minute increments.
Here's how #Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort worked his way back up from #12 to #6 to get Paris Johnson.
He talked with SEA (5), DET (6), LV (7) and ATL (8). All happening on the fly.
Again, this is AMAZING access.
(via Cardinals Flight Plan on YT)pic.twitter.com/9EsUJ9VV7u
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 9, 2023
The pattern is the same in each negotiation. Ossenfort runs point — opening each call with a congenial Midwestern “hey, bud” — while his fellow executives crunch the numbers and decide whether or not the proposed deal makes sense. But while the result from trading back to the middle of the first round is a subued “call it in,” Ossenfort and his staff, including new coach Shane Steichen, break out a modest manly celebration of high fives and chest-bumping bro-hugs.
It’s pretty cool to see how the sausage is being made in Arizona. Now Ossenfort has to hope the players he drafted in 2023 work out — and that the Texans remain butt this fall.