NFL Rumors: Giants May Trade For Josh Rosen To Succeed Eli Manning, Patriots Also Possible As Tom Brady’s Heir
New Arizona Cardinals Coach Kliff Kingsbury said last October — when he was still the head coach at Texas Tech — that if he were picking in the NFL Draft, he would take Heisman Trophy-winning Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray with the number one overall pick. Four months later, Kingsbury is now head coach of the Cardinals who possesses the number one pick, and Murray has declared himself eligible for the NFL draft — and Kingsbury now responds evasively when asked about Murray, according to AZ Central Sports.
“That was in October way before anything like this had transpired,” Kingsbury said in the interview earlier this year.
Of course, Arizona just last year selected a top quarterback prospect with the 10th overall pick, taking UCLA’s John Rosen. Kingsbury has since declared that Rosen is “our guy” on the Cardinals’ own Twitter account.
But shortly after declaring for the draft, Murray signed with sports agent Erik Burkhardt, who just happens to represent Kingsbury as well, The Ringer reported — and according to The Ringer, “someone” told Murray that he would likely be picked number one, which was a factor in his decision to enter the draft.
In other words, according to football experts such as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Murray may be in at Arizona, and Rosen — who was able to guide the Cardinals to only three wins in his 13 starts in 2018 — appears to be out.
If Rosen is indeed on the trading block leading up to the April 25 NFL Draft, a likely landing spot for him would be in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where he will serve one year as understudy to two-time Super Bowl-winning New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who at age 38 is playing the final year his contract, and likely his career. According to Ralph Vacchiano of New York’s SNY sports network, “the Giants heavily scouted the 22-year-old Rosen last year and had some interest in him prior to the draft, they will surely be interested again on at least some level if the Cardinals’ asking price is right.”
According to Fansided columnist Avery Duncan, the key to a prospective Rosen trade would not be the Giants’ number six overall pick, which New York would keep, but pass rusher Olivier Vernon — who has compiled 22 sacks in three seasons with the Giants — and a “bevy” of lower-round picks in 2019 and 2020.
But the Giants are not the only team with an eye on trading for Rosen as their quarterback of the future. Draft Analyst publisher Tony Pauline said Saturday via Twitter that Washington execs have “spoken openly” about acquiring Rosen. And Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network speculated on Saturday that the New England Patriots may target Rosen as a successor to future Hall of Famer Tom Brady, who will turn 42-years-old prior to the 2019 season.
