Sounds like the Cardinals botched the Rosen trade
The Arizona Cardinals got the guy they wanted as their quarterback of the future, selecting Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray of Oklahoma with the No. 1 overall pick in last week’s NFL draft.
But shouldn’t they have gotten more for Josh Rosen — the guy they chose as their quarterback of the future with the 10th overall pick in 2018 — than the 62nd overall pick this year and a fifth rounder next year?
That’s what they got from the Miami Dolphins, who passed on making a deal for Rosen on the first day of the draft before finally pulling the trigger Friday evening.
A Sports Illustrated article published Monday suggests some of the ways the Cardinals might have bungled the process. The team waited until just before the draft started to commit to picking Murray and shopping Rosen to the handful of teams in the market for a young starting quarterback.
Rosen’s agent, Ryan Williams, didn’t receive permission to help with the process until after the first two picks were made, the article states. Then, after the New York Giants selected Duke quarterback Daniel Jones at No. 6 overall, Williams reportedly received an inquiry from Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, who wondered if the New England Patriots might be interested in acquiring Rosen as the eventual successor to Tom Brady.
According to Sports Illustrated: “Williams was taken aback and grew angry. How did Keim not already know the answer? The whole world knew, or had a good idea, that the Cardinals were taking Murray on Thursday. Why the secrecy? Why are we negotiating trade terms now instead of weeks ago?”
At that point, Arizona still hoped it might receive a first-round pick for Rosen, even though the Cardinals apparently had no leverage. “That’s really bold for someone who just took a QB,” the article quotes a Redskins executive as chuckling after hearing the asking price.
Thursday night, Rosen stopped following the Cardinals on social media, even though the team was saying publicly that it actually might keep him and Murray on the roster.
“A GM’s not going to draft a quarterback and draft another one the next year, higher, and then play the first one. It’s admitting you made two mistakes. It just wouldn’t happen,” Rosen told Sports Illustrated. “I wouldn’t hesitate to compete [for the starting job], but I would know preemptively I wouldn’t get a shot even if I won the competition.”
Popular
The NFL draft drew record numbers on site and on television.
The league said that more than 600,000 attended over the three days in Nashville, breaking the record of 250,000 that came to watch two years ago in Philadelphia.
Nielsen reports that the draft on ESPN, ABC and NFL Network averaged 6.1 million viewers at any given time over the three days. The draft averaged 5.5 million viewers last year, which was the first time all seven rounds were on broadcast television. The ABC broadcast averaged 4.5 million, which was up 21% from last year’s 3.7 million that watched on Fox.
“By every metric — from the hundreds of thousands of fans who filled the streets of Nashville to the recordbreaking ratings and viewership — this event was an unqualified success,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president for club business and league events, told the Associated Press in an email.