Cardinals Met With Potential First-Round OL

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals hosted Minnesota Golden Gophers OL Aireontae Ersery on a pre-draft visit, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz.

Ersery also visited with the Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers.

“Ersery has NFL-ready size and length and could sneak into the first round Thursday night if there’s a run on offensive linemen. He started 38 straight games for the Gophers to finish his collegiate career,” Schultz added to his report on Twitter/X.

The Cardinals have done strong work on offensive linemen ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, where they hold the 16th overall selection. Arizona has hosted OL such as Anthony Belton, Josh Simmons and Kelvin Banks on Top 30 visits among a flurry of other meetings with potential picks along the trenches.

Ersery primarily played at left tackle during the last three years of his career, where he earned third-team All-American honors in 2024 along with first-team Big Ten and the Remington-Pace Big Ten OL of the Year award.

NFL.com’s scouting profile has him as a player that can eventually be an average starter with a round two projection:

“Three-year starter at left tackle with good power. Ersery is not a natural bender, which creates disadvantages with leverage and when attempting to mirror moving fronts. He’s well-versed in Minnesota’s outside zone attack, but might be more consistent in power, inside zone and hat-on-hat matchups. He’s huge, but he sets with good quickness to the rush, using his length and hand strength to gather it or lock it out. His anchor is derived from his upper half, which opens him to hand counters. Ersery has the potential to become an average starting tackle on the right side, but his success will be tied to matchups across from him.”

The Cardinals do have Paris Johnson Jr. at left tackle after flipping him from the right side after his rookie season. It’s also notable that other Top 30 OL who visited with Arizona (Banks, Belton and Simmons) have exclusively played left tackle the last two years of their college career.

If Arizona decides to trade back deep in the first round, Ersery could be a target for general manager Monti Ossenfort.