The Cardinals continue to bring in top defensive players for official visits.

Can we add another top defensive prospect to the list of players the Arizona Cardinals are hosting for top-30 visits leading up to the 2025 NFL draft? The answer is yes.

NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo said on the PHNX Cardinals podcast that the latest name among top defensive prospects is Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant.

Grant is a prospect projected to go somewhere between the middle of the first round and the top of the second round in the draft.

He is 6-foot-3 and 331 pounds with great athleticism. He is a great run defender and some believe he has upside as a pass rusher. In 2024, he had three sacks and seven tackles for loss.

Some of other top defensive prospects who have met or will meet with the Cardinals are:

• Georgia EDGE Jalon Walker
• Georgia EDGE MyKel Williams
• Texas A&M EDGE Shemar Stewart
• Texas A&M EDGE Nic Scourton
• Ole Miss DT Walter Nolen
• Michigan CB Will Johnson
• Tennessee EDGE James Pearce Jr.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

Arizona State is surging on the recruiting trail — and just added another commitment to bolster its top-20 recruiting class.

After officially visiting the Valley over the weekend, Julian Hugo jumped on board with Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils.

The touted 2026 EDGE from Texas wasted no time locking in his commitment.

“I was so ready to commit. I’ve never felt more at home compared to the other schools I’ve been to,” Hugo told Rivals. “The players that hosted me really made me feel at home. They welcomed me and brought me in like I was one of theirs. My family also loved everything that Arizona State had to offer. No other school stood out to me as much as Arizona State.”

The three-star EDGE defender from Cibolo (Texas) Steele High is a top-50 prospect at his position.

He’s the fifth Texan to pledge to Arizona State — good for half of the Sun Devils’ 2026 haul.

“Arizona State had a culture I haven’t seen before,” Hugo admitted. “I’ve been to many schools and they all talk about culture, but they didn’t show it. Arizona State is definitely one of these places where you have to be there to feel it. This weekend, I saw the way everybody interacts with each other and it’s true, genuine love for each other. It feels like a family up there. I’m a faith and family-oriented person, and the whole staff and team were all about that, too.”

Baylor, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and TCU were among the other suitors in play with Hugo.

“I fit right into the Arizona State culture and they check off all of my boxes, too,” Hugo asserted. “Everybody there really believes in what they do and how they work. That team faith is gonna take us far. I stand for team confidence and being a team player, so I feel like Arizona State is the perfect fit for me. They made me feel like a priority by always checking in on me as a team and not just one coach recruiting me.”

• Lori Vallow Daybell is on trial in Arizona for conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her ex-husband, Charles Vallow.
• A juror from Daybell’s Idaho trial, where she was convicted of killing her children, is observing the Arizona proceedings.
• The Arizona trial is focusing on the 2019 shooting death of Charles Vallow by Lori Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox.

Lori Vallow Daybell’s Arizona trial on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the fatal shooting of her ex-husband Charles Vallow has attracted observers from across the country, including a man who was a juror in her earlier trial in Idaho.

When Tom Evans, 67, stepped into a Phoenix courtroom this week, it was not as a juror but as an observer — an outsider looking in on a case that has consumed his thoughts for two years.

In May 2023, Lori Daybell was found guilty in Idaho of the deaths of two of her children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and adopted son Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, as well as conspiracy to murder Tammy Daybell, the ex-wife of her husband, Chad Daybell, who was also convicted, in May 2024, in the three deaths. All three were killed in the months after Charles Vallow’s death.

Evans, a retired Idaho contractor, ended up writing two books after serving his civic duty, one about Lori Daybell’s trial, the other about Chad Daybell and his murder trial. Lori Daybell was sentenced in Idaho to life without parole; Chad Daybell to death.

“I couldn’t just walk away from it,” he said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. “There were too many questions left unanswered.”

Now, he’s in Arizona for Daybell’s second trial, which stems from the July 2019 shooting death of Charles Vallow in Chandler. Charles Vallow was killed by Lori Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed self-defense and died not long after.

On April 8, the fourth day of Lori Daybell’s Maricopa County trial, prosecutors began presenting evidence from the shooting scene, calling first responders and police officers who photographed Charles Vallow’s body.

Images of Charles Vallow after he was shot were shown to the court during testimony.

Evans said it was images like these that took an emotional toll on him during the Idaho trial. As a juror, he viewed graphic crime scene photos of the children’s remains.

“The hardest thing was just being exposed to those images,” he said. “You don’t forget that.”

He said he suffered from night terrors and emotionally withdrew from his daily life.

His wife noticed first, telling him he wasn’t present, not really.

“I think I was in denial,” Evans said. “About two days before we left to drive to Phoenix, I realized that this is the first time I’ve actually taken the time to just reflect on everything.”

It would take two years — and the completion of his second book — before he could begin to deal with the psychological strain of the case.

For the jurors now seated in Phoenix, Evans has a simple message: Take care of yourselves.

“Don’t do what I did and try to move on like nothing happened,” he said. “Get counseling — even if you don’t think you need it.”

Even after writing two books about the case, Evans said he’s still searching for answers, and his biggest question has yet to be answered.

“How do you get to a place where you believe killing your children is the right thing to do?” he wondered.

He said he’s also looking to the Arizona case for more insight into how the events unfolded.

“I don’t know why Lori wasn’t dealt with before Charles was murdered, or certainly before she went to Idaho and murdered the kids,” he said. “So I think we need answers to those questions, and this is how we get that.”

Chandler police investigated Charles Vallow’s death after he was shot. Cox was never charged. The Charles Vallow case remained under review until July 2021, when the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office indicted Daybell, two months after her Idaho indictment.

Evans said he was struck by the speed of jury selection in Lori Daybell’s second trial: 12 jurors and four alternates were chosen within two days of the trial starting. He also expressed concern about the remaining alternates: three.

One juror was replaced on the second day of testimony after he said he couldn’t afford to miss work. A second juror was almost removed after he said he had witnessed body camera footage of the shooting scene, but ultimately was allowed to stay.

“In a trial that might go this long, people could get sick — anything could happen,” Evans said. The trial was scheduled to last several weeks.

After meeting Lori Daybell’s family and writing about her, Evans said he came to view her as a narcissist and lifelong attention-seeker, traits that may have gone unnoticed or unchallenged by those around her.

“She’s very good at drawing people in and taking advantage of them,” he said.