We Can Restoke The Josh Rosen-To-Patriots Trade Speculation Again
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady is pretty good at sports, but he is going to turn 42 years old in August. (It's true -- look it up!) And so, with America's most fascinating football team presumably in the market for a successor to Brady, the story of that pursuit is sure to draw quite a bit of interest in the coming months and years.
On that front, it wasn't long ago that an idea was concocted where the Patriots could acquire quarterback Josh Rosen -- the No. 10 overall pick last year -- from the Arizona Cardinals. It was a simple theory: new Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury absolutely loves Kyler Murray, so the Cardinals -- owners of the No. 1 overall pick this year -- could draft Murray and trade away Rosen. The Patriots, always willing participants on draft day deals, figured to be a good match for a trading partner.
That idea gained some steam but was crushed on Feb. 12, when Kingsbury committed fully to Rosen. Womp womp went that possibility.
Ah, but just a few weeks later, Cardinals general manager Steve Keim appeared to be much less committed to Rosen, telling reporters Wednesday at the combine, "Is Josh Rosen our quarterback? Yeah, he is, right now, for sure."
Right now.
For sure?
It was that language that stood out, as it's much more noncommittal than Kingsbury's definitive "Josh is our guy" statement from a few weeks back. And it's the language of Keim that has restoked the flames of speculation on a potential Josh Rosen trade.
"You can actually read into what he said and how he said it," ESPN analayst Louis Riddick told ABC15 in Arizona. "You've heard people do it in the past, and usually what that means is, 'Yeah, he is for now, unless we think we have something better.' And, look, Kyler Murray is someone who their new head coach Kliff Kingsbury has obviously a lot of admiration for and feels as though he would be somebody who would be very dynamic in the type of offense he ideally would like to run."
Riddick played in the NFL and worked for several years as a scout. He also interviewed for the Giants' GM vacancy back in 2017. He said that it's not only possible that the Cardinals swap out Rosen for Murray, but that it could be considered likely.
"So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility at all. As a matter of fact, I think it's more probable than not -- to use some of the league's terminology -- that Kyle Murray winds up on this football team and maybe as the No. 1 overall pick," Riddick said. "I don't think we should be shocked; I think, as a matter of fact, we should prepare ourselves for that. And I think it's not a stretch to say go ahead and prepare yourself to see Josh Rosen in another uniform down the line."
Riddick stressed that he's not much of a rumor-monger, but that Keim's language was distinctive enough to draw certain conclusions.
"We'll see. Teams a lot of times mask their intentions," Riddick said. "But, again, reading in to what he said -- and I don't like to blow things out of proportion, quite honestly -- but I think that was very telling, what was said here [Wednesday] in Indianapolis."
Now, if this speculation turns out to be true, it's obviously no guarantee that the Patriots would be the team that swoops in and picks up a 10th overall selection at a discounted rate. But, given Brady's much-publicized age, we'll have to consider the Patriots at the very least interested whenever a quarterback with such talent becomes available.
Plus, multiple reports prior to last year's draft indicated that the Patriots had their eyes on Rosen.
Under first-year head coach Steve Wilks, Rosen struggled mightily as a rookie. He completed 55.2 percent of his passes for 2,278 yards, 11 TDs and 14 INTs in his 13 games started, compiling a 3-10 record. In his three years at UCLA, he completed 60.9 percent of his passes, averaging 8.0 yards per attempt and throwing 59 touchdowns to 26 interceptions.
The Patriots drafted quarterback Danny Etling in the seventh round of last year's draft out of LSU, but that would not exclude the team from investing some more draft capital into the most important position in this year's draft.
UPDATE!!!!
Rosen has removed all photos and mentions of the Cardinals from his Instagram page!
If that's not a sure sign that a breakup is imminent, then I'm not sure what is. HOWEVER ... Rosen said the other day that his account had been HACKED!
The plot thickens...
