The Cardinals are 11 months removed from sending the Raiders a third- and fifth-round pick to exchange first-rounders, moving up just five spots to secure the chance to draft Josh Rosen.
Sixteen games, a new coaching regime and a quarterback prospect unlike any other later, times have changed.
The value for Rosen, last year’s No. 10-overall pick, has appeared to take a dive, as Arizona considers whether Rosen or perhaps Kyler Murray is the franchise’s future. If the answer is the latter, Rosen is a trade waiting to happen — but this would not be selling high.
“Probably a three,” one anonymous general manager told Peter King’s “Football Morning in America,” in reference to a third-round pick. “Not what the Cardinals would think his value is.”
Kurt Warner has a special interest in the Cardinals, reason to inflate Rosen’s value and now works for NFL Network. Warner still agreed that he “would give a three for Josh.”
So if Kliff Kingsbury & Co. have fallen in love with Murray, there’s even more risk to flipping the franchise direction if there will be no haul coming for Rosen. Last year the 22-year-old was one of the prizes in a quarterback crop that so many raved about. Then the season began, Rosen inherited a dead offense by Week 4 and could not revive it. With little help around him, Rosen looked like an overwhelmed rookie. In 13 starts, he topped out at 252 yards passing in a game, finishing with 11 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and three wins.
This year’s QB prospects are significantly more polarizing, led by Murray, the 5-foot-10 wonder who can electrify but also has built-in height disadvantages that will scare many off. Yet Kingsbury had pledged that Murray should be the No. 1 pick before he got the Arizona job, and Cardinals GM Steve Keim said last week that Josh is the team’s quarterback “right now.”
Rosen’s value seems to have dipped for the Cardinals. The problem may be that it’s dipped for many others, too.