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Arizona Cardinals News & Rumors

Poll: Should Giants Trade For Josh Rosen?

March 30th, 2019 at 3:27pm CST by Sam Robinson

NFL teams in need of a long-term answer at quarterback appear to have an interesting opportunity this offseason. One of 2018’s top quarterback prospects may well be available at a discount rate — both financially and in terms of draft capital — less than a year after being selected.

Nothing has cooled on the Cardinals-Kyler Murray front, leaving Josh Rosen as one of the more intriguing potential trade chips in memory. Kliff Kingsbury in February said Rosen would be the starting quarterback on his first Cardinals team, and while he has not officially changed his stance on this, the odds entering April of Rosen having a second opportunity with the Cards look longer than the likelihood of the UCLA product being traded.

The Giants loom as a possible landing spot. If/when Rosen becomes available, one of the teams that passed on him last year will be interested. Big Blue did not have a consensus on the top quarterback in last year’s draft, but with Eli Manning having recently turned 38 and Dave Gettleman having chosen Saquon Barkley over Sam Darnold 11 months ago, the prospect of a first-round quarterback talent being available at a lower rate has to be somewhat enticing — especially for a Giants team that has numerous needs on defense.

Gettleman traded both Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Eli Apple in the past year and opted against placing the Giants’ franchise tag on Landon Collins. The team has a few surefire starters — Alec Ogletree, Jabrill Peppers, Janoris Jenkins, Dalvin Tomlinson, B.J. Hill — but is lacking talent elsewhere on its first unit. Both of the Giants’ first-round picks could go toward rebuilding their defense. They are not looking to package their Nos. 6 and 17 picks to move up, either.

None of this year’s group of passing prospects has wowed the Giants, who have been up and down on Dwayne Haskins. If Big Blue is dead-set on the Ohio State-honed quarterback, this is a fairly big secret. Gettleman, however, said his Manning successor will need to be a first-round pick. None of this year’s quarterbacks would outrank Rosen as prospects, in the eyes of multiple high-profile evaluators, either. Prior to selecting Barkley, though, the Giants may not have had Rosen as one of the top-three quarterbacks on their board last year.

The Cardinals took Rosen at No. 10 overall, giving up merely third- and fifth-round draft picks to move up five spots last year. The results were not pretty.

Rosen completed 55 percent of his passes, averaged 5.8 yards per attempt and threw 11 touchdown passes compared to 14 interceptions. He finished with a league-worst 26.1 Total QBR. Football Outsiders assessed the 6-foot-4 passer as last year’s worst full-time quarterback, with Rosen’s DVOA and DYAR figures well behind the pack. Arizona, though, employed two offensive coordinators last year and experienced rampant trouble on its offensive line, creating a shaky setup for a rookie quarterback.

It will almost certainly not cost a team a first-round pick to land Rosen this year. A second, or possibly a third, figures to be enough to pry the 2018 prospect away. The Giants hold the No. 37 overall pick but do not have another selection until No. 132; Big Blue’s third-rounder went toward 2018 supplemental draft cornerback Sam Beal. This would complicate a Giants trade for Rosen, with other teams seemingly likely to pursue the low-cost passer as well. With the Cardinals having paid his signing bonus, a team acquiring Rosen would have him for less than $7MM through the 2021 season. That is obviously great value, if a team believes the 22-year-old is a worthwhile starter.

So should the Giants be the team that pulls the trigger for Rosen, or should they focus on one of this year’s rookie QBs? After his rough debut season, do you view him as a legitimate option to be a long-term starter? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section.

Cardinals Take Bosa Out To Dinner

March 29th, 2019 at 8:40pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

For a long time toward the end of the college season, Ohio State pass-rusher Nick Bosa was the favorite to go first overall in the 2019 draft. But ever since Kliff Kingsbury got the head coaching job with the Cardinals, momentum has steadily shifted toward Kyler Murray. The current conventional wisdom is that Arizona is leaning toward taking Murray with the first pick, and shopping Josh Rosen. But they won’t admit it publicly, and there are reasons to believe they haven’t actually made up their minds yet.

The Cardinals are having dinner with Bosa tonight, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Bosa, the younger brother of Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa, dominated in the Big Ten. The Cardinals have been not so subtle with their interest in Murray, but it’s still possible that it’s all been a smokescreen to try and distract from their true intentions with the pick. If the Cardinals pass on him, Bosa is still a lock to go within the first couple of picks. We heard earlier this week that the 49ers were targeting him at second overall.

Giants To Explore Josh Rosen Trade

March 27th, 2019 at 9:40am CST by Zachary Links

The Giants have internally considered a trade for Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen, according to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. However, those conversations have been extremely preliminary, as the Giants are still unsure about Rosen’s availability. 

Rumors of the Cardinals targeting quarterback Kyler Murray have swirled over the last couple of months and nothing is certain on that front with less than one month to go before they take the podium. Recently, Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury did his best to quiet talk of the Cards drafting the former Oklahoma quarterback and moving on from Rosen, the UCLA product who was selected with the No. 10 overall pick last year.

“People have said a lot of things that are misconceptions, if you will,” Kingsbury said of the Rosen speculation. “Josh is a tremendous player, I’ve always thought, watching him at UCLA. He played his best football in a spread system, some similarities to what we do. He’s a tremendous thinker, very cerebral, can throw it with anybody.”

The Giants, meanwhile, are armed with the No. 6 and No. 17 overall picks in this year’s draft, but they’re not 100% sold on any of this year’s top QBs. Rosen could be had for a lot less than a first-round pick, and he has some fans in the building.

Darius Philon To Play DE For Cardinals

March 26th, 2019 at 9:35pm CST by Sam Robinson
  • A defensive tackle in the Chargers’ 4-3 defense the past two seasons, Darius Philon will return to a role as a 3-4 defensive end with his new team. The Cardinals are planning to use Philon as an end, Kliff Kingsbury said (via ESPN.com’s Josh Weinfuss, on Twitter).

Cardinals’ HC On No. 1 Overall Pick: “Everything’s On The Table”

March 24th, 2019 at 11:21am CST by Rory Parks

The Cardinals have been relatively busy since free agency opened, making a number of moves to bolster their offensive line, the front seven of their defense, and taking a flier on former first-round wideout Kevin White.

It does not appear that they will be contenders in 2019, however, and the moves they made were done with an eye on protecting a young quarterback and keeping the club competitive enough so that said young quarterback does not have to throw the ball 30+ times a game.

But who that quarterback will be remains an open question. There has been plenty of speculation that the club will use its No. 1 overall pick on Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray — just one year after trading up to the No. 10 pick to select Josh Rosen — and reports earlier this month indicated that Murray-to-Arizona was a done deal.

New head coach Kliff Kingsbury is a major reason for the speculation, as Kingsbury has no personal connection to Rosen, and the prevailing belief is that Murray would thrive in Kingsbury’s system. And as Grant Gordon of NFL.com writes, Kingsbury has done nothing to quiet the rumor mill.

Kingsbury told the NFL Network’s Steve Wyche yesterday, in response to a question about whether he would consider a QB with the No. 1 pick, “everything’s on the table. When you have that first pick, you’ve gotta turn over every stone and look at every scenario that’s out there, and so we’re definitely doing that.”

Of course, Kingsbury is not going to tip his hand, and he has said all the right things about Rosen. But he also sounds like a man who is not truly committed to the second-year signal-caller, no matter what he says publicly. Kingsbury said, “Yeah, I do [think Rosen could remain with the team]. I do. I mean, when you have the first pick, anything can happen, as you know, but you know, he’s a talented player, and we’re very high on him and that hasn’t changed. I’ve talked to Josh and he understands it’s a business and what all goes with the first pick and what’s going on.”

The Cardinals have reportedly received trade inquiries on Rosen, though one potentially interested team, the Redskins, are likely out of the picture at this point after trading for Case Keenum. But after a difficult rookie campaign, Rosen probably would not fetch much of a return, with perhaps a third-round draft choice being the best-case scenario for Arizona.

The club does have plenty of needs beyond QB, though, and if Kingsbury is not ruling anything out, one of this year’s top pass rushing prospects, like Nick Bosa, could also be in play. The Cardinals could also trade the pick and try to land more draft capital to accelerate their rebuild, especially if Kingsbury believes he can mold Rosen into a quality signal-caller. But given the general dearth of top-end talent at the skill positions this year, and considering the depth of talent at pass rusher, such a trade may not yield as much in 2019 as it might in a different year.

That could change if another team falls in love with Murray, but one way or another, there figures to be plenty of intrigue over the course of the next month. Unless they trade their No. 1 pick, the Cardinals will be on the clock at 9pm EST on April 25.

GM Change Impacted Terrell Suggs’ Decision To Leave Ravens

March 23rd, 2019 at 3:33pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Ravens’ defense will look considerably different in 2019. While C.J. Mosley and Eric Weddle helped anchor the past few units, Terrell Suggs was a cornerstone Raven for more than 15 years.

Suggs departed Baltimore for Arizona, where he grew up and played in college. But had Ozzie Newsome not followed through with the plan of stepping down as Ravens GM, Suggs said he would probably have re-signed with Baltimore.

“Through and through I’m an Ozzie Newsome guy,” Suggs said during an appearance on Fox Sports’ Skip and Shannon: Undisputed (via NBC Sports Baltimore). “Once I knew Ozzie was going to step down as GM, you know, I kind of had to question my future in a Ravens uniform.”

Newsome’s exit strategy became official in February 2018. Longtime lieutenant Eric DeCosta is now running the Ravens’ front office. New starters will take their places on the 2019 Ravens’ defense. Mosley had started on the past five Baltimore defenses, Weddle the past three.

Suggs said he had considered this move for a while and added that the Ravens’ decisions on other veteran stalwarts this offseason affected his choice. Although news of Mosley’s Jets agreement did not emerge until after Suggs decided to leave, the Ravens opted to let the off-ball linebacker test the market.

“I actually decided before — I hadn’t slept in weeks. I was going to go back to Baltimore because it was the safe thing to do,” Suggs said during Undisputed of his initial instinct, before reconsidering and opting for Arizona (via BaltimoreBeatdown.com). “I loved and respected that organization so much that I had to remove myself out of the situation.”

The 36-year-old edge defender signed a one-year, $10MM deal with the Cardinals. He initially caught Newsome’s attention while playing at Arizona State in the early 2000s.

Contract Details: Vaccaro, Callahan, Okafor

March 21st, 2019 at 10:20pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Let’s take a look at the details of a few recently-signed NFL contracts, with all links going to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle’s Twitter account:

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/21/19

March 21st, 2019 at 9:04pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Detroit Lions

Miami Dolphins

Oakland Raiders

Cardinals To Sign DT Darius Philon

March 21st, 2019 at 10:44am CST by Zachary Links

The Cardinals are signing former Chargers defensive tackle Darius Philon to a two-year, $10MM deal (Twitter link via Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). Philon will receive $5MM fully guaranteed and can earn a maximum of $12MM through incentives. 

Philon, 25, has appeared in 54 career games since entering the league as a sixth-round pick in 2015. Over the last two years, he’s taken a big step forward in his career. In 2017, he notched a career high 4.5 sacks, playing mostly as a reserve. Last year, he started in 13 of his 16 games and notched four sacks plus 33 tackles overall.

The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus indicate that 2018 was Philon’s best season yet. He could have an opportunity to build on that as a key contributor in Arizona.

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