"He is our guy" - Josh Rosen's Cardinals departure proves Kyler Murray's future still uncertain
The Arizona Cardinals are dealing with a bizarre situation surrounding Kyler Murray. He scrubbed the team from his social media profiles, and that instantly started talk of him wanting a trade.
He has been mostly silent on the matter, aside from a statement that did not offer much clarity one way or the other. The top quote was him saying, "All of this nonsense is not what I'm about, never has been, never will be."
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Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill then came out this week and said he believes in Murray and is standing behind him. He said speculation about the quarterback's angst has been "inconsistent" with his own conversations with Murray.
On @AZSports, #AZCardinals owner Michael Bidwill said he talked to QB Kyler Murray Thursday night, and said speculation with situation has been "inconsistent" with conversations Murray has had with Cardinals of late. Bidwill says he loves Murray and knows he's getting better.
So it is the end of February, and the Cardinals are publicly backing their quarterback. But could there be trade talks taking place behind the scenes? What about plans to bring in a new quarterback?
Fans may remember a similar scenario taking place back in early 2019. The team owned the No. 1 overall pick, and new head coach Kliff Kingsbury had Josh Rosen as his quarterback. While Rosen was not a former No. 1 pick, he did go No. 10 overall in 2018.
Murray, of course, was sitting there as the top prospect available. Kingsbury decided to shut down the speculation once and for all.
Y’all are having fun with speculation, but... https://t.co/dy4NbJ82iB
"Josh is our guy" has become an infamous line in recent Cardinals history. Kingsbury said this as he took the job and had Rosen sitting on the roster as the top quarterback. It was the right thing to do, but it was hard to believe. We now know that the team did in fact go with Murray, and Rosen has been bouncing around the NFL ever since.
So what does this tell us about the team's current situation?
The Cardinals won't tip their hand on Kyler Murray
This is a time of the year when NFL teams won't reveal their plans for the upcoming season. And that makes sense because signings and trades cannot be made until the new league year begins in March.
The same was true when the team held on to Rosen, claiming he was still their guy. It was a poorly kept secret that Kingsbury was brought in to work with Murray from the start.
There is a big difference here in that the current quarterback was indeed taken at No. 1 overall and has also had better results. Murray has been the starter since 2019 and just led the team to the postseason. Yes, the final result was an ugly loss to the Los Angeles Rams, but the team was still winning, and the coaching has to be looked at as well for that tough loss.
Yet the similarity is that the franchise seems to have a tough time with first-round quarterbacks. What has led Murray to be so upset? One rumor was that he felt like a scapegoat for the team's problems. That is something Kingsbury will have to shut down right away as the team leader.
Everything seems to be cleared up at the moment. Yet fans should not be shocked if the new league year begins and trade talks heat up once again. It is hard to totally remove a negative feeling from one's mind in such a short amount of time.