Arizona Cardinals: How plausible is trading Josh Rosen, drafting Kyler Murray?
There is buzz floating around about the Arizona Cardinals possibly trading Josh Rosen and taking Kyler Murray with the No. 1 pick, but how viable is that?
The Arizona Cardinals traded up in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft in hopes of selecting their franchise quarterback, which they tabbed to be Josh Rosen. After Sam Bradford struggled early for Arizona, Rosen was given the reins of an awful football team in his rookie season, helping lead them to a 3-13 record and the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
After the lack of success in the 2018 season, though, the Cardinals front office elected to fire head coach Steve Wilks and replace him with former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury. And, with news that Oklahoma quarterback and 2018 Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray planning to enter the 2019 draft (per ESPN), talk around the league is getting interesting.
Appearing on Get Up! on Thursday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said that it was “not impossible” for the Cardinals to potentially trade Rosen and take Murray with the top pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. This was largely in relation to an October 2018 quote from Kingsbury in which he raved about Murray and said he would take him No. 1 overall in the NFL (per Sports Illustrated).
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Of course, “not impossible” and “likely to happen” leave a lot of room in between. Subsequently, it’s important to look at the plausibility and viability of this scenario actually playing out for Kingsbury and the Cardinals.
Put simply, this seems to be far more smoke than any kind of fire happening with this buzz bout a Rosen trade. For starters, it would be almost unprecedented to trade a first-round quarterback after one year when he was not the biggest problem with the team in his rookie year and first season as a starter.
Beyond that, however, the Cardinals hiring Kingsbury from the outside doesn’t look like a move to completely reset the franchise. With the former college head coach’s pedigree as an offensive mind, his hiring likely was made to maximize the talents of Rosen and David Johnson, not to start fresh again and use the most valuable pick in the NFL Draft on a position that the team used a first-round pick on last season.
Yes, if Arizona were to trade Rosen, there would be a market and the buyers would likely pay handsomely for him. That would be beneficial for a Cardinals team that, in truth, has a roster that is quite lacking throughout. Having said that, it would not be as beneficial as establishing consistency as an organization by keeping Rosen, especially with the obvious talent the second-year quarterback possesses.
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Subsequently, we can write this off as nothing but noise at this point. Never say never, but that’s exactly what Schefter’s report of “not impossible” should be read as. It’s almost surely not going to happen, but at this point and in the wild state of the NFL, don’t count anything out. If you’re placing bets though, Rosen will be Kingsbury’s quarterback for 2019 and beyond.