A month removed from a season where the Arizona Cardinals allowed the fourth-highest completion percentage in the league last season at 68.6%, ESPN’s analyst Matt Miller has the organization doubling down on defensive backs in his latest two-round mock NFL Draft.

Miller has the Cardinals taking Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron with the No. 16 pick in the first round, followed by Shavon Revel Jr. out of East Carolina with the No. 47 pick in Round 2.

Despite the Cardinals’ needs at different positions — highlighted by pass rusher — Miller thinks Barron could complement veteran safety Budda Baker, who is coming off his best year as a pro.

Barron won the Jim Thorpe award in 2024, which is given to the best defensive back in college football. He logged 67 tackles, five interceptions, one sack and 11 passes defended in his award-winning year.

The Cardinals could go a number of directions with wide receiver, cornerback and defensive end all being issues. Barron took home the Jim Thorpe Award … after making a move from slot cornerback to the outside before the 2024 season. He had five interceptions and 10 pass breakups, and he boosted his profile from a Day 3 pick to one of my top 15 players in the class. Some teams might view him as an inside corner, while others like Barron’s tape on the outside. Playing him on the inside with Budda Baker gives the Cardinals instant improvement on the back end.

Cardinals add Shavon Revel Jr. in Round 2 of latest mock draft

Revel played in three games before a torn ACL derailed his 2024. He recorded eight tackles, two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) and two passes defended in the short showing.

A year prior, he had registered 54 total tackles, 13 passes defended with one interception and one sack. He also returned a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Like Morrison, there was first-round talk around Revel before he suffered a torn ACL in September. … At 6-foot-3, 193 pounds, Revel has the size and speed to be the matchup cornerback the Cardinals are lacking.

Two Arizona Wildcats go in the top-64

Miller had Arizona’s standout wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan going to the New Orleans Saints with the ninth overall pick.

McMillan gives the Saints a wide receiver who can stretch the field and complement Chris Olave. McMillan finished 2024 with 84 receptions for 1,319 yards and eight touchdowns. In his sophomore campaign in 2023, McMillan recorded 90 receptions for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Chris Olave is great when healthy (he played only eight games this past season), but the Saints lack impact receivers beyond him. That’s why the 6-foot-5 McMillan could fit. He can win deep down the field and gain even more yards after the catch. His range and ability to win 50-50 balls reminds me of the Falcons’ Drake London, who was a first-round pick in 2022. There is concern about McMillan’s pull-away speed at the pro level, so how he runs at the combine will be important for his draft stock. But he’s one of the best receivers in this class going off tape alone, finishing third in the country with 1,319 receiving yards in 2024.

Offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea is the other Wildcat listed in Miller’s mock draft. He goes 27th overall to the Baltimore Ravens as Savaiinaea gives Baltimore a younger look in the trenches.

Wide receiver would be an ideal pick if Baltimore signs left tackle Ronnie Stanley before he hits free agency, but the top five options on my board are gone, and there’s no early-Round 2 players worth reaching for here. Instead, Baltimore could get a replacement for free agent guard Patrick Mekari in the powerful and versatile Savaiinaea. Savaiinaea has experience at left tackle, right guard and right tackle, and the 6-foot-4, 339-pounder has 34 5/8-inch arms. He’d also give the Ravens more youth up front, where rookie Roger Rosengarten excelled this season.

The Arizona Wildcats open the Big 12’s 2025 football schedule with a bye before visiting conference runner-up Iowa State on Sept. 27.

The Wildcats will get their first Big 12 crack at Iowa State, which lost the Big 12 title game in 2024 to ASU.

Arizona’s slate includes projected top 25 programs Arizona State, BYU and Iowa State. The Territorial Cup matchup will take place in Tempe this year on either Friday, Nov. 28, or Saturday, Nov. 29, after the Sun Devils defeated the Wildcats 49-7 last season in Tucson.

Arizona will miss Utah, Oklahoma State, Kansas, West Virginia and UCF. It will take on Kansas State in nonconference play, as the matchup was scheduled before the two programs became conference foes.

Ladies and gentlemen: the 2025 Big 12 Football Schedule 🏈🗓️ pic.twitter.com/kzjNGAFoKQ

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) February 4, 2025

Head coach Brent Brennan is in his second year leading the program and has made notable changes to his staff after a disappointing 4-8 campaign.

Seth Doege takes over as the offensive play-caller, and Danny Gonzales has shifted from special teams to defensive coordinator.

One area of continuity will be at quarterback with Noah Fifita returning for a third season.

Here is the Arizona football schedule for 2025:

Arizona Wildcats football 2025 schedule – Early Big 12 slate released

Nonconference schedule

Aug. 30: vs. Hawai’i

Sept. 6: vs. Weber State

Sept. 13: vs. Kansas State (scheduled before Arizona joined the Big 12)

Big 12 conference schedule 

Sept. 20: Bye

Sept. 27: at Iowa State

Oct. 4: vs. Oklahoma State

Oct. 11: vs. BYU

Oct. 18: at Houston

Oct. 25: Bye

Nov. 1: at Colorado

Nov. 8: vs. Kansas

Nov. 15: at Cincinnati

Nov. 22: vs. Baylor

Nov. 28 or 29: at Arizona State

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Well, if Monday wasn’t the encapsulation of this failed era of Phoenix Suns basketball, we should fear what comes next to top it.

On a night that should have been special, the one Devin Booker became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, the greatness of both him and Kevin Durant was overshadowed by another poor team performance, a 121-119 overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Yes, the Blazers improved to 8-1 in their last nine games. But they are now 21-29 and just beat the Suns two games in a row, the official send-off for Phoenix before the schedule gets immensely difficult.

Worst of all, when the game was up for grabs, it was Booker and Durant who came up short.

After each made their first shot of the extra five minutes, they combined to miss their next four, all open 3-pointers. And with the Suns needing a bail-out down three with 5.1 seconds left, Booker was fouled on a 3-point attempt for the Suns to be gift-wrapped another opportunity to tie it, just like the end of regulation when Portland didn’t foul up three.

Booker, however, missed his third free throw to tie it, and that was that.

Despite a few margins of victory or defeat that were close recently, this was the first tightly-contested contest the Suns have played in nine games. That was the win in Detroit when Booker and Durant went supernova. Since the 9-2 start to the year carried by Durant in clutch time, the Suns haven’t had too many of these tests. That was evident.

Durant took the closer role again in this one but Phoenix could not get enough stops to take a lead, and instead, required a terrible strategic decision by the Blazers not to foul up 3 with 14 seconds remaining. That led to a Royce O’Neale 3 to tie it and send the game to overtime with 1.7 ticks to go off a terrific extra pass by Booker.

In OT, Portland had it tied with under two minutes to go before Jerami Grant drew free throws on a mismatch. He made the first before missing the second, only for Deandre Ayton to grab the loose ball. Blazers guard Anfernee Simons got his own foul drawn for two more free tosses that put them ahead by three with 1:39 to go. A broken possession ended with an open Durant corner 3, only for him to miss.

Phoenix gave itself one more chance by Durant assisting Bradley Beal at the rim for two at 0:32 on the clock. With the Suns needing one stop to avoid the free-throw shenanigans Portland would surely trigger on a second chance to do so, they squandered two opportunities to grab a defensive rebound.

The first actually forced a pause in play by the officials since the Portland bench yelled for a shot clock reset on a shot that never hit the rim, all while Phoenix left Simons wide open with the ball and 4.5 left on the shot clock after the rebound went off Mason Plumlee’s hands. The review left that as the clock, and the Blazers got a terrible attempt from 3 by Grant that was way off. The long rebound spent enough time in the air to hit the ground and be grabbed by Ayton, an absolute no-no for defenses. Ayton made both free throws.

After Beal was intentionally fouled and sunk his two, Ayton was up again with 5.5 ticks left and once again converted.

That was when Booker got the trio of free throws and missed the third. While the Suns didn’t have a timeout and were basically cooked at three ticks left, in a fitting end, Ayton missed his second but Portland corralled the loose ball.

The Suns were once again led by their three big scorers and unable to play cohesively enough to inspire a better overall team outing. Booker produced 34 points, Durant added 27 and Beal’s 25 were his most since Jan. 9.  O’Neale provided 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals.

After Portland had seven players in double figures on Saturday, it was six on Monday. Ayton was the standout with 25 points and 20 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive glass. The Suns had 10 as a team, playing a small-ball unit for the last 15 minutes of the game.

The Suns went down 14-5 in under three minutes, a stretch that included a Portland 3 off an offensive rebound, a Suns pick-six turnover on a pass 35 feet from the basket, a blocked Suns jumper, a Suns turnover on a 60-foot pass over Booker’s head and three baskets at the rim for Portland’s Deni Avdija.

Phoenix, behind nine quick points from Booker, got within four shortly after that. But we’re at the point in the season where the comebacks being necessary from disastrous stretches against mediocre competition trumps the fight being shown. The necessity for it is mind-numbing.

So too were the Suns’ turnovers early. With two of them already painted out, there were more in the first quarter when you could see the ball-handler hesitating to throw the pass that isn’t there and then just tossing it anyway.

Not that Phoenix should be surprised by any team playing aggressive and physical off the ball given this is the NBA, but it stayed in Portland after seeing that exact effort in a loss on Saturday.

The Suns, however, finally located their own source of being an irritant by forcing six turnovers in the first 15 minutes after Portland, the second-worst turnover team in the league, only had three in the first three quarters on Saturday. Phoenix was getting out in transition and hitting 3s, going 8-for-12 in those 15 minutes after knocking down just a total of 10 the game prior.

That brought the lead to four and completely took Portland out of whack. The Blazers went on to score 11 points in the first 10:40 of the second quarter, which allowed Phoenix to extend its lead to nine. The Suns led by six at halftime and it felt like both teams deserved to be down 20, sadly reflective of where Phoenix stands at the moment given Portland, you know, sucks.

After Booker got the record on an open 3-point jumper from the corner in with 7:54 left in the third quarter to give the Suns their biggest lead of the game (seven), Portland closed the quarter on a 28-15 run.

Phoenix got back to drilling 3s in the final frame to stay in it, all while struggling to generate stops, another nice microcosm of the season.

Booker played 47 minutes and Durant was 46. Durant was grimacing throughout the rest of overtime after his first make of the period. It wasn’t clear what was bothering him but he clearly wasn’t moving right. Phoenix now has to take that workload and go to Oklahoma City on Wednesday, the last game before the trade deadline.

Ryan Dunn and Nick Richards, two of the bright spots of the last month, played 12 and 18 minutes, respectively. Tyus Jones, the big addition of the offseason, got only 17 minutes of run. Head coach Mike Budenholzer has begun heavily leaning into Booker, Durant, Beal, Allen and O’Neale, which comes at the expense of those three.

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