‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the Arizona Cardinals’ Biggest Questions Heading into the 2026 NFL Season

Three teams into the Four Downs march through all 32 rosters, and the Arizona Cardinals present the first genuinely fun set of questions. Rich is working down the draft order, which means the Raiders and Jets are behind him and Arizona is up, and the through line here is a rookie running back who lit up the draft and a quarterback room nobody can quite explain.

First down: can Jeremiah Love be the offensive rookie of the year?

Arizona spent the third overall pick on him, and Rich did not hide his enthusiasm. "I love running backs," he said, and the selection itself was exciting enough to move the needle on draft night. The show met Love at the draft, where he volunteered that he intends to play special teams too.

"I appreciate your moxie," Rich said, which is a polite way of saying nobody drafts a running back third overall to cover kicks. The kid is all in on being great. That part is not in question.

The math is. James Conner is coming back off the leg injury and Trey Benson is already on the roster, so the touches have to come from somewhere. Rich wondered aloud whether Arizona splits Love out wide, which opens up a lineup with Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson and Trey McBride on the field and Conner in the backfield. That is a lot of mouths to feed for a rookie chasing a trophy.

Second down: is Mike LaFleur head coaching material?

Rich asked the same question of Clint Kubiak in the Raiders edition, and Kubiak is the offensive coordinator of the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Fair is fair. LaFleur gets the same test. How does he handle the quarterback room with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew in it? How does he run a team, manage a challenge flag, make the calls that get noticed for the wrong reasons?

"We're going to find out," Rich said. That is the whole answer, and it is the honest one.

Third down is where Rich swore he was not trolling, and then asked a question that absolutely reads like trolling.

Will the Ohio State version of Marvin Harrison Jr. show up this year? The last time Harrison caught a thousand yards in a season was his final year at Ohio State. The year before that was also a thousand-yard season. He has not had one in his first two NFL seasons.

The room offered an offseason counterpoint, which is a photo making the rounds on social media. Harrison looks, per the scouting report from the desk, like he is getting ready for WrestleMania.

"Good for him," Rich said. "Let's see what happens."

Fourth down: does Carson Beck get any run, and can he be the man?

Beck was the third quarterback taken in this year's draft. Two went in the first round, Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson, none went in the second, and then Arizona stepped up ahead of everybody else and took Beck. So the question is whether he ever gets the ball ahead of the two veterans, or whether the Cardinals treat next spring's quarterback-rich draft as the real answer and let Beck sit.

Rich framed the upside as a chain reaction. Can Beck be the one to make Marv great again? Can he keep Michael Wilson on an upward path? Can he keep McBride going, a tight end who has been Arizona's leading receiver in both of Harrison's NFL seasons? Beck was, if Rich has it right, in the same recruiting class as Bryce Young and CJ Stroud, so the pedigree is there.

And then the bonus down, which is the one that actually matters. How do you compete in this division? Arizona finished last, is picking third overall, and shares a division with the two teams that met in the NFC Championship game plus the team one of them beat in the divisional round.

"Come on. Best of luck," Rich said.

The desk closed with the most encouraging stat of the segment. The original Marvin Harrison did not have a thousand-yard season until year four, and he is in the Hall of Fame.

"And he had Peyton Manning," Rich said. Which is exactly the point.