Lynne Sladky/Associated Press ESPN’s Adam Schefter didn't outright dismiss the idea that new Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury could trade Josh Rosen—who the franchise selected with the No. 10 overall pick in last year's draft—and draft Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the top pick in 2018. Schefter said the scenario is "not implausible" while appearing on Get Up! on Thursday. However, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported a Cardinals source told him the idea of the team dealing Rosen was 'ludicrous" and "not happening. This comes after Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported the Oakland Athletics expect Murray to declare for the NFL draft despite the fact that they drafted him as a baseball prospect in the first round of 2018's MLB draft. Slusser noted declaring for the draft alone wouldn't guarantee Murray will reject the $4.66 million deal he has with the Athletics, although a source said he is leaning toward choosing the gridiron. Oakland would still retain his rights even if he played football, leaving the door open to a return to baseball down the line, but it wouldn't receive a compensatory pick in June's upcoming draft. Slusser cited a source who said the Athletics could allow Murray to attend the NFL Scouting Combine even though it is during Spring Training, which would require MLB approval. In the 2018 season, Murray won the Heisman Trophy after leading the Sooners to a Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff behind 4,361 passing yards, 1,001 rushing yards and 54 total touchdowns. He possesses the speed and elusiveness to make defenders miss and turn what normally would be short gains into game-changing plays as a runnner, while his arm strength allows him to fit passes into tight windows as a thrower. Video Play Button Videos you might like Agent Scott Boras told reporters in mid-December that Murray's performance in 2018 had opened up his options: "When you win the Heisman Trophy, you're going to have a lot of information come to you and be looked at. All I know is that Kyler has a tremendous opportunity to be a great baseball player. He knows that." Kingsbury would have the opportunity to keep his word should Murray choose the NFL, as Sports Illustrated shared the new Cardinals coach and former Texas Tech leader saying he would draft the Oklahoma product with the top pick if he had the chance: That would mark a swift change in direction for the franchise after it appeared to make Rosen its quarterback of the future in last year's draft. Rosen appeared in 14 games as a rookie and completed 55.2 percent of his passes for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions for a Cardinals team that finished 3-13.<doc-sep>If you would have asked me last week whether Kliff Kingsbury should consider taking Kyler Murray with the first overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, I would have asked for some of your drugs. Kingsbury accepted a job as USC’s new offensive coordinator in December, while Murray seemed set to play for the Oakland A’s organization after being taken with the team’s first-round MLB draft pick in June. But a lot has changed in one week! Now this pairing maybe, possibly could happen. Kingsbury—one of my favorite college football coaches ever—has stunningly been given the opportunity to coach an NFL team. Not just any NFL team: the Arizona Cardinals, who have the first pick in April’s draft. And Murray—one of my favorite college football players ever—is reportedly considering forgoing his baseball career a few weeks after winning the Heisman Trophy. Kliff and Kyler is no longer the stuff of my dreams. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, a union between the two could happen: #Cardinals might be open to Draft Kyler Murray 1st overall and trade away 2018, 10th overall pick QB Josh Rosen, per @AdamSchefter pic.twitter.com/N0JO8XUvYv — Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 10, 2019 Multiple NFL executives believe Murray is a first-round quarterback talent: Texted several nfl execs just now on Kyler. Everyone responded 1st round. I asked at WR? All said QB. No brainer for Murray — John Middlekauff (@JohnMiddlekauff) January 10, 2019 And the cherry on top: When then–Texas Tech coach Kingsbury was asked about then-Oklahoma quarterback Murray in October, he unambiguously endorsed Murray as being worthy of the no. 1 NFL draft pick: Kliff Kingsbury back on October 28, 2018: "Kyler is a freak.....I would take him with the first pick of the draft if I could." (via @EricKellyTV) pic.twitter.com/N9m99DkTNr — Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 10, 2019 “I would take him with the first pick of the draft if I could” is a pretty harmless thing for a college football coach to say about an opposing player, especially if that player is supposed to pursue a career in professional baseball. It’s like a couple discussing free passes to hook up with the celebrities they have crushes on. “Sure, honey … if you and Emma Stone are ever in a room together … well, I’m sure you guys would really hit it off, and I’m sure she’d love to hear you talk about why your boss is an asshole for about 45 minutes. Just make sure to tell me about it the next day.” (Note: I guarantee “Kliff Kingsbury” has been the answer to the hall-pass question for at least 10 couples in Lubbock, Texas.) It’s speculative fantasy: Nothing here will ever come to fruition. Except now Kingsbury is an NFL head coach, and his team has the first pick in the draft, and Murray is attracting buzz as a potential first-round talent. Choosing football is suddenly more financially appealing than sticking with baseball, and it seems like Murray is leaning toward declaring for the draft. That’s right: Emma Stone is at happy hour, and she actually thinks it’s cute how mad you get when ranting about your stupid boss. Will Kingsbury take the dive and commit to turning the Cardinals into a Big 12 team—just months after being fired by an actual Big 12 team? It’d be a huge risk, but hey, everybody here has taken a bunch of risks already. Let’s go all in. I didn’t expect Kingsbury to be an NFL head coach because, well, I don’t think he expected to be an NFL head coach. After he was fired by Texas Tech, I wrote a post with the headline “Kliff Kingsbury Just Started His Offseason As ‘The Bachelor,’ Offensive Coordinator Edition,” since I presumed that he’d have a lot of suitors who’d want him to become their offensive coordinator. I did not expect anybody to offer him a head-coaching job because he had just prominently failed to put together anything resembling a competent defense. Over his six-season tenure, his Red Raiders never ranked better than 86th in scoring defense, and he finished with a 35-40 record overall. This may explain why Kingsbury took that job as the offensive coordinator at USC—he didn’t foresee any gettable head-coaching jobs coming open, and preferred the lower stakes and chiller atmosphere of a college OC job to NFL OC jobs with comparable salaries. But then it became clear that pro teams wanted him to be a head coach, and, well, that changed things entirely. Kingsbury quickly backtracked on USC, leading to an awkward divorce in which the Trojans reportedly refused to let him interview with pro teams and Kingsbury promptly resigned. (The collateral damage: Any high schoolers who committed to USC during the month or so that Kingsbury worked there and signed national letters of intent have to stay at the school, because the NLI is the worst contract in sports.) And I like the premise of NFL head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Offense was never a problem for Kingsbury’s teams; he was responsible for the top offense in college football twice, once as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator (in 2012) and once at Texas Tech (2015). He’s also proved exceptional at quarterback development, having worked with three of the league’s 32 starters: Patrick Mahomes II, Case Keenum, and Baker Mayfield. (Yes, I give Kingsbury credit for spotting Mayfield as a recruit with zero major FBS scholarship offers, even if Mayfield soured on Kingsbury after just one year and went on to become a legend at Oklahoma.) Defense was always the hang-up, as Texas Tech had a bottom-five scoring defense in three straight years, from 2014 to 2016. Part of the explanation is that few talented defensive recruits signed up to be coached by Kingsbury. What could Kingsbury offer them, other than a chance to get embarrassed defensively while failing to receive the quality coaching necessary to emerge as a prospect for the next level? (Lubbock is also far from many things.) The good news for the Cardinals is that Kingsbury no longer has to pitch defenders on playing for him. He can draft them, or else pay them, legally, with real American currency. Last offseason I laid out the case for why an Air Raid coach could be successful in the NFL. The Air Raid was designed to to help programs like Texas Tech compete despite having inferior talent. The problem was those programs’ defenses rarely held up. In the pros, an Air Raid head coach could commit an outsize proportion of his team’s draft capital and salary cap space to bringing in defensive star power. You would have a talent advantage on one side of the ball, and a schematic advantage on the other. That’s a recipe to win a lot of games. I didn’t expect Murray to be a top NFL draft pick because, well, I don’t believe he expected to be a top NFL draft pick. Even when writing about Murray as a Heisman Trophy candidate in December, I operated under the presumption that we were seeing the last of him as a football player, and that he’d soon follow through on his commitment to play baseball. It made sense: MLB money is guaranteed, and the injury risks are lower. Of course, there was always one scenario in which the football money would be more appealing: if Murray had a chance to become a first-round draft pick. First-rounders secure higher guarantees than Murray’s baseball deal ($4.77 million) includes, and if a player gets a second contract as an NFL starting quarterback, the money is enormous. I just didn’t consider it likely that Murray would be hyped as such a high pick. That was not a knock on him, but rather on the way that NFL teams have long evaluated quarterback talent. Murray is 5-foot-10, played in an Air Raid college offense, and has a game predicated on his speed. All of those qualities have scared teams away from drafting quarterback prospects in the past. It’s even scared them away from QBs who, like Murray, dominated in college and took home the Heisman.<doc-sep>Less than a year ago, the Arizona Cardinals committed to Josh Rosen as their franchise quarterback. Kyler Murray’s draft status could put that in doubt. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Athletics expect their former top pick to declare for this year’s NFL Draft. And that could mean Rosen’s job is in danger. Not only did Rosen post the second-lowest completion percentage (55.2) of all 33 qualifying quarterbacks in his rookie season, but his new coach, Kliff Kingsbury, is a big Murray admirer. “Kyler is a freak,” Kingsbury said this past October before his Texas Tech team faced Murray’s Oklahoma. “I’ve followed him since he was a sophomore in high school, and [I] just think the world of him, and what he can do on a football field. I’d take him with the first pick of the draft if I could.” Now you can, Kliff. After posting a 3-13 record in 2018, the Cardinals own the top pick in April’s draft and Kingsbury will be part of that decision after being hired as Arizona’s head coach this week. When the two faced off this past fall, Murray put on a show, totaling 460 yards (360 passing, 100 rushing) and four touchdowns to defeat Texas Tech 51-46. The Cardinals’ new coach has good reason to like the Heisman winner, but he’s apparently a fan of Rosen as well. Kingsbury said one of his first calls after accepting the position was to Rosen. “I want to get to know Josh, get to understand what makes him tick,” Kingsbury said at his introductory press conference. “I do think he wants to be a great player in this league. I think he’s very competitive. You watch him play this year and some of the shots he took and continued to get up and continued to fight. That says a lot about the young man. So, I’m excited to develop that relationship.” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said Thursday morning that it’s “not implausible” for the Cardinals to trade Rosen. It’s unknown whether Kingsbury was forced to commit to Rosen in taking the job, but Murray’s newfound availability could make for some interesting discussions.<doc-sep>
Kyler Murray is reportedly declaring for the NFL Draft, and that development understandably set off a chain of events that, some 12 hours later, already has us discussing Murray not only going in Round 1, but possibly going first overall. It started innocuously enough when then-Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said this back in October about Murray. "Kyler, I mean, he's a freak, man," Kingsbury said at the time, via Eric Kelly of KLBK. "Kyler is a freak. I've followed him since he was a sophomore in high school. Just think the world of him and what he can do on a football field. I've never seen one better in high school and he's starting to show it now at the college level. I don't have enough good things to say about him. He's phenomenal. "I've never seen him have a poor outing. Not one, which at quarterback is impossible to do but he's done it. I'd take him with the first pick of the draft if I could. I know he's signed up to play baseball but he is a dominant football player and I would take him with the first pick." So yeah, funny story. The Arizona Cardinals hired Kingsbury this week and, as it turns out, the Cardinals have the first-overall pick. We joked on Wednesday night during an appearance on CBS Sports HQ that Murray's impending announcement was horrible news for quarterback Josh Rosen, the Cardinals' first-round pick last April. Again, to be clear, we were joking. Which brings us to ESPN's Adam Schefter, who wasn't joking when he talked Thursday about the possibility of the Cardinals drafting Murray first overall. "The one thing about the NFL is that quarterbacks are currency," Schefter told ESPN's Mike Greenberg. "And i can tell you this: Last year, when the Cleveland Browns had the first and fourth-overall picks, at one point in time -- and I know people will be skeptical of this -- they considered taking quarterbacks at one AND four, and then auctioning off one of the quarterbacks that they liked less. "So if you're the Arizona Cardinals and you like Kyler Murray that much -- also, imagine him going No. 1 overall -- but maybe there's a scenario where you get him and you auction off Josh Rosen. If that's what the new [coach] likes, if that's what he wants, why would you not acquiesce to that when you could get a king's ransom for Josh Rosen, who some teams really like. Again, we're getting things started here really early, and really putting things out there, but it's not implausible that that scenario could unfold." That seems improbable, but a year ago no one was talking about Baker Mayfield as a first-round pick, let alone the first overall selection. He went nuts at the Senior Bowl and three months later, he was the first player to hear his name called in the 2018 NFL Draft. As it stands, Murray is the second-best quarterback in the 2019 draft class, behind only Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins. And by the time it's all said and done, Murray not only could be the first quarterback taken, he could be the first player taken in this draft.