Former NFL defensive lineman Josh Mauro died last week, the Raiders announced. He was 35.
The cause of death is unknown.
“The deepest condolences of the Raiders Family are with Josh’s family and friends at this time,” the team wrote.
Mauro went undrafted in 2014 and signed with the Steelers. He spent his rookie season on the practice squads of the Steelers and Cardinals.
He played four seasons with the Cardinals, one with the Giants, one with the Raiders and two more with the Cardinals, last playing in the NFL in 2021.
In his career, Mauro played 80 games with 40 starts and totaled 130 tackles, five sacks, 13 quarterback hits, five passes defensed and two forced fumbles.
Cardinals Clips
The Cardinals drafted seven players this year and they’re signing seven more rookie free agents to their 90-man roster.
The group includes a pair of players who were teammates at Ole Miss during the 2026 season. Wide receiver Harrison Wallace III led the team with 61 catches for 934 yards in his lone season at the school. He had 84 catches over four seasons at Penn State before transferring.
Safety Wydett Williams is the other Ole Miss product headed to Arizona. He had 73 tackles and an interception in 15 games with the team last season.
The Cardinals have also agreed to terms with James Madison cornerback Elijah Culp, Arizona offensive lineman Ka’ena De Cambra, Minnesota tight end Jameson Geers, SMU linebacker Cameron Robertson, and Oklahoma defensive lineman Damonic Williams.
Cardinals General Manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Mike LaFleur want to hold off on any discussion of rookie quarterback Carson Beck competing for the starting job.
After taking Beck in the third round of the draft, Ossenfort and LaFleur avoided discussing whether he might be part of a three-way quarterback competition with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew.
“We just announced his name about a half hour ago. We just want to get him in the building,” Ossenfort said. “We’re excited to have great competition in that room and we’ll see how it shakes out.”
LaFleur said Beck would benefit from learning on the sideline, but also indicated that if he proves himself as the best quarterback on the team, then the best quarterback will play.
“It benefits anyone at any position to be able to sit back. Sometimes guys don’t have a choice because you have to put your best 22 on the field, so we’ll see where this all shakes out,” LaFleur said.
Ossenfort said the Cardinals got to know Beck well during the pre-draft process, watched his film from both Georgia and Miami, and think he provides good value as a third-round pick.
“We spent a lot of time with Carson, met him at the Combine, brought him in for a 30 visit, there was no shortage of tape on Carson,” Ossenfort said. “Carson played in a lot of big-game environments. Played in a lot of intense environments in the SEC . . . and then the highest stage he could play on in the National Championship Game.”
Next Beck will play on the biggest stage in football in the NFL, but he might not play right away.
No quarterbacks were taken in the second round of the draft on Friday night, but one has come off the board with the first pick of the third round.
The Cardinals selected Carson Beck with the 65th overall pick. Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson were the quarterbacks drafted in the first round.
Beck transferred to Miami last year and piloted the Hurricanes to the national title game. He was a two-year starter at Georgia before making the move to South Florida and had 11,725 yards, 88 touchdowns and 32 interceptions while completing just under 70 percent of his career passing attempts.
Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew are the veteran quarterbacks in Arizona, but Brissett has been away from the team’s offseason program while looking for an adjusted contract.
Texas A&M offensive lineman Chase Bisontis was a betting favorite to be a first-round pick. He didn’t hear his name called on Thursday night, but it didn’t take long for him to get taken on Friday.
With the 34th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the Cardinals selected Bisontis.
The 21-year-old Bisontis is 6-foot-5 and 315 pounds and was a three-year starter at Texas A&M. He can play guard and tackle.
On Thursday night, the Cardinals selected running back Jeremiyah Love third overall. Now they’re adding a player they hope can open holes for him.
The Cardinals knew who they wanted to draft. They just didn’t know how to reach him.
Arizona was ready to select Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 as soon as it was on the clock. The Cardinals, however, had to wait to turn in the card since they couldn’t get Love on the phone.
“If you want me to tell you the honest-to-God truth, we had the wrong phone number,” Cardinals General Manager Monti Ossenfort said, via Saad Yousuf of TheAthletic.com. “The phone number that we were given was the wrong one. That was the little bit of the delay. We got that straightened out, and we called Jeremiyah and we got ahold of him. That’s what the delay was — technical difficulties. There [were] very minimal [trade] conversations. There was some surface-level, but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move off the pick.”
The NFL limited access to prospects’ phone numbers after several players received prank calls last year. This year, the league gave the list of phone numbers to a single point of contact at the club in football operations, with that person charged with protecting the information.
It is unclear how the NFL corrected the error in time for the Cardinals to call Love before turning in the card.
Jeremiyah Love was not the first offensive player taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the running back is in front of Fernando Mendoza on another front.
Love has been installed as the betting favorite to be the offensive rookie of the year after being picked by the Cardinals at No. 3. Various sportsbooks have pegged Love’s odds at anywhere between +200 and +300, but he is the consensus top choice on the day after the draft.
Mendoza was the first overall pick by the Raiders and the quarterback joins Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, and Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon to round out the top five choices.
The Jets made edge rusher David Bailey the first defensive player off the board at No. 2 and he is the favorite for the award. Oddsmakers differ on how other players line up behind Bailey, but Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain, Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, and Chiefs cornerback Mansoor Delane are bunched together as the other top choices.
Is the running back en vogue again?
The Cardinals selected Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 overall on Thursday night, making him the league’s highest-drafted running back since the Giants picked Saquon Barkley at No. 2 overall back in 2018.
Speaking with Cardinals media after the selection on Thursday night, Love said it was not a surprise to get the call from Arizona.
“I had great dialogue with [General Manager] Monti [Ossenfort] a few weeks ago,” Love said, via transcript from the team. “After David [Bailey] got picked, I kind of had a feeling I would get a call from the Cardinals.
“It’s just a blessing being able to have the opportunity to go to Arizona and I’m ready for it. I’m ready for the opportunity, and I’m just ready to work.”
Love also called it “very special” to be one of the highest drafted running backs in several years.
“I have the opportunity to really set a new standard for running backs,” Love said. “We’ve already had Saquon, we’ve had Bijan [Robinson], and we’ve had Ashton [Jeanty]. Now you have me.
“It’s my job and my duty to make sure that when I step foot in Arizona, that I do what I’ve got to do to represent the running backs and represent Arizona in the right way, so that’s what I’m going to do coming into the league. I’m going to make sure I represent the right way and I’m very blessed to have this opportunity. I’m just ready to work and do what I’ve got to do to have success.”
Does that put any more weight on him to perform?
“No added pressure at all,” Love said. “I try not to listen to a lot of things that are said about me, whether they are good or bad. I know I was just picked as the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, but I’m still myself at the end of the day. I still have the same work ethic, and it’s going to get better.
“I’m still just Jeremiyah Love, man. I’m still on the hunt for something greater than this. That hunt is never going to stop, so there’s no pressure here.”
Immediately after the Cardinals made running back Jeremiyah Love the third overall pick in the draft, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network shared a previously unknown nugget.
Cue the NFL insiders who knew about it all along but who decided not to do, you know, their jobs.
Love, per Rapoport had an abnormal EKG at the Scouting Combine. Further testing cleared the issue, and it obviously didn’t impact Love’s stock.
Regardless, if people knew about it (and Rapoport presumably didn’t find out in the handful of seconds after Love was picked), they should have shared it. It’s relevant information, no different than the constant rush to Twitter to break news of transactions that teams are about to announce.
The Cardinals have taken a big swing on the potential of running back Jeremiyah Love to make big plays in new head coach Mike LaFleur’s offense.
With the third overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the Cardinals took Love, the All-American from Notre Dame.
It’s a bold move by General Manager Monti Ossenfort, as running backs have not been selected this highly in recent NFL drafts. Love is the highest-drafted running back since the Giants took Saquon Barkley No. 2 overall in 2018.
Love is an impressive talent who will make plays both running the ball and as a receiver out of the backfield, and perhaps even lining up at wide receiver in some formations. LaFleur must think Love can make a big impact.
