TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Cardinals hosted their two first-round picks at the team's facility for an introduction on Friday, and the No. 27 overall pick — former Missouri defensive lineman Darius Robinson — did the standard routine, thanking his family and the franchise for giving him a chance to live out his NFL dream.
Then the big man turned to his right.
“And I'm glad to be here with Marvin Harrison Jr. right next to me!” Robinson said, grinning from ear to ear.
The Ohio State receiver is a star even among his own draft class.
Arizona's rebuild under second-year coach Jonathan Gannon and general manager Monti Ossenfort hit an important moment this week as the team used 12 draft picks to restock a roster that needed talent at nearly every spot. The crown jewel of the group is Harrison, the No. 4 overall pick who the Cardinals hope can be an All-Pro-level player for the next decade.
The Cardinals' draft haul was one of the biggest in the league. Depending on how many make the team, more than 20% of next fall's active roster could include players picked over the past three days.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Harrison will team with two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kyler Murray next fall for the revamped Cardinals, who have finished 4-13 record in each of the previous two seasons.
Harrison was the first non-quarterback drafted after Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye were selected, and considered arguably the most can't-miss prospect of the 2024 class.
Most rookies aren't expected to be stars immediately. Harrison won't have that luxury.
“I have high standards for myself, but I'm just going to go in there and try to work the best I can,” Harrison said. “I just want to help the team win. Whatever role I play come September, I'll put my best foot forward.”
The 6-foot-5, 285-pound Robinson should make an immediate impact on the Cardinals' defensive line. He had 8 1/2 sacks in his final college season with the Tigers and was named first-team All-Southeastern Conference.
The Cardinals used one of their third-round picks on Florida State running back Trey Benson, who should immediately become the backup to veteran James Conner.
Conner is coming off his first 1,000-yard rushing season, but is now 29 years old and only under contract through 2024. There's a good chance Benson could take over the role in a full-time capacity in 2025.
Benson ran for nearly 2,000 yards over two seasons for the Seminoles, averaging more than six yards per carry. He was also a threat in the passing game during his final season, catching 20 passes for 227 yards and a touchdown.
The most intriguing part of the Cardinals' draft came in the second round, when Ossenfort traded down, sending the No. 35 and a sixth-round pick to the Falcons for the No. 43 selection and a third-round pick.
That's right about the time there was a run on cornerbacks, which is a position of need for the Cardinals. Iowa's Cooper DeJean, Alabama's Kool-Aid McKinstry and Georgia's Kamari Lassiter were the three selections just before Arizona's No. 43 pick.
The Cardinals made it four corners in a row, grabbing Rutgers star Max Melton.
Ossenfort was thrilled with the selection, but it's fair to wonder if the Cardinals were hoping DeJean, McKinstry or Lassiter would fall to them. Time well tell which team made the best decision.
The Cardinals had a busy third round with four selections in a 25-pick stretch.
They added Benson first, beefing up the running back room. Then they went with Illinois offensive lineman Isaiah Adams, Illinois tight end Tip Reiman and Boston College cornerback Elijah Jones.
Reiman is a fascinating prospect who was a breakout star at the combine, flashing athleticism and sure hands. The 6-foot-5, 271-pounder was a former walk-on for the Illini but worked his way into an important role.
He'll join a tight end group that already includes Trey McBride, a breakout star last season with 825 yards receiving and three touchdowns.
Arizona kept piling up picks in the late rounds, adding Texas Tech safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson in the fourth, Clemson defensive lineman Xavier Thomas and Texas offensive tackle Christian Jones in the fifth, UAB receiver Tejhuan Palmer in the sixth and Miami cornerback Jaden Davis in the seventh.
Davis was taken with the No. 226 overall pick, which was the same selection the franchise used on Pat Tillman when it chose the Arizona State linebacker in 1998. Tillman eventually served in the U.S. military and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004.
AP NFL draft: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl-draft
Arizona Cardinals first round draft pick Marvin Harrison Jr. speaks at an NFL football press conference, Friday, April 26, 2024, at the teams' facility in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
From left; Arizona Cardinals President and CEO Michael Bidwill, first round draft pick Marvin Harrison Jr., general manager Monti Ossenfort, first round draft pick Darius Robinson, and head coach Jonathan Gannon pose for a photographers at an NFL football press conference, Friday, April 26, 2024, at the teams' facility in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama is on the verge of a dramatic change to its immigration policy that could reverberate from the dense Darien jungle to the U.S. border.
President-elect José Raúl Mulino says he will shut down a migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now, Panama has helped speedily bus the migrants across its territory so they can continue their journey north.
Whether Mulino is able to reduce migration through a sparsely populated region with little government presence remains to be seen, experts say.
“Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,” Mulino said after his victory with 34% of the vote in Sunday’s election was formalized Thursday evening. He will take over as president on July 1.
As he had suggested during his campaign, the 64-year-old lawyer and former security minister said he would try to end “the Darien odyssey that does not have a reason to exist.”
The migrant route through the narrow isthmus grew exponentially in popularity in recent years with the help of organized crime in Colombia, making it an affordable, if dangerous, land route for hundreds of thousands.
It grew as countries like Mexico, under pressure from the U.S. government, imposed visa restrictions on various nationalities including Venezuelans and just this week Peruvians in an attempt to stop migrants flying into the country just to continue on to the U.S. border.
But masses of people took the challenge and set out on foot through the jungle-clad Colombian-Panamanian border. A crossing that initially could take a week or more eventually was whittled down to two or three days as the path became more established and entrepreneurial locals established a range of support services.
It remains a risky route, however. Reports of sexual assaults have continued to rise, some migrants are killed by bandits in robberies and others drown trying to cross rushing rivers.
Even so, some 147,000 migrants have already entered Panama through Darien this year.
Previous attempts to close routes around the world have simply shifted traffic to riskier paths.
“People migrate for many reasons and frequently don't have safe, orderly and legal ways to do it,” said Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission in Panama for the U.N.'s International Organization for Immigration. “When the legal routes are not accessible, migrants run the risk of turning to criminal networks, traffickers and dangerous routes, tricked by disinformation.”
Loprete said the U.N. agency's representatives in Panama would meet with Mulino's team once its member are named to learn the specifics of the president's plans.
If Mulino could be even partially effective, it could produce a notable, but likely temporary, impact. As with the visa restrictions that unintentionally steered migrants to the overland route through Panama, if the factors pushing migrants to leave their countries remain they will find other routes. One could be the dangerous sea routes from Colombia to Panama.
In a local radio interview Thursday, Mulino said the idea of shutting down the migration flow is more philosophical than a physical obstacle.
“Because when we start to deport people here in an immediate deportation plan the interest for sneaking through Panama will decrease,” he said. By the time the fourth plane loaded with migrants takes off, “I assure you they are going to say that going through Panama is not attractive because they are deporting you.”
Julio Alonso, a Panamanian security expert, said what Mulino could realistically achieve is unknown.
“This would be a radical change to Panamanian policy in terms of migration to avoid more deaths and organized crime using the route,” he said. Among the challenges will be how it would work operationally along such an open and uncontrolled border.
“In Panama, there is no kind of suppression with this situation, just free passage, humanitarian aid that didn't manage to reduce the number of assaults, rapes, homicides and deaths along the Darien route,” Alonso said. Mulino's proposal is “a dissuasive measure, yes, (but) whether it can be completely executed we will see.”
It's also unlikely that much could be accomplished without a lot of cooperation and coordination with Colombia and other countries, he said.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that “without considering the risk of returning migrants to dangerous situations, in mathematical terms I don't know how they hope to massively deport" migrants.
"A daily plane, which would be extremely expensive, would only repatriate around 10% of the flow (about 1,000 to 1,200 per day). The United States only manages to do about 130 flights monthly in the entire world,” Isacson said.
FILE - A Panamanian flag flies on Ancon hill backdropped by the skyline of Panama City, days ahead of the presidential election, May 2, 2024. On May 5th, Panamanians elected José Raúl Mulino who ran on the promise to usher in another wave of economic prosperity and to stop migration through the Darien Gap, the jungle region overlapping Colombia and Panama that was traversed by half a million migrants last year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Migrants who plan to start walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia to Panama in hopes of reaching the U.S. gather at the trailhead camp in Acandi, Colombia, May 9, 2023. President-elect José Raúl Mulino said Thursday, May 9, 2024, he will shut down the migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now, Panama has helped speedily bus the migrants across its territory so they can continue their journey north. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia, File)
FILE - Achieving Goals presidential candidate Jose Raul Mulino celebrates his victory after his rivals conceded, in Panama City, Sunday, May 5, 2024. Mulino ran on the promise to usher in another wave of economic prosperity, and stop migration through the Darien Gap, the jungle region overlapping Colombia and Panama that was traversed by half a million migrants last year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Voters line up outside a polling station during a general election in Panama City, May 5, 2024. President-elect José Raúl Mulino ran on the promise to usher in another wave of economic prosperity, and stop migration through the Darien Gap, the jungle region overlapping Colombia and Panama that was traversed by half a million migrants last year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Panamanian President-elect Jose Raul Mulino meets with the press in Panama City, May 7, 2024. Mulino said that he will shut down the migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year, whose victory with 34% of the vote in the May 5th election was formalized on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Migrants cross a river during their journey through the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama, hoping to reach the U.S., Oct. 15, 2022. President-elect José Raúl Mulino said Thursday, May 9, 2024, he will shut down the migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now, Panama has helped speedily bus the migrants across its territory so they can continue their journey north. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
