Mock draft season is in full force with the NFL combine having wrapped up, and much of the talk in Indianapolis was surrounding the Arizona Cardinals, the first pick in the draft and Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray.
Whether it is true or not, the Cardinals appear to have convinced the league they will take Murray with the first overall pick, which has led to mock drafts projecting exactly that.
Doug Farrar’s second mock draft of the year for Touchdown Wire does just that. He has Arizona going with the Heisman Trophy winner, the Cardinals’ second QB pick in the first round in consecutive drafts.
Rumors are flying thick and fast both ways about Arizona’s interest in selecting Murray first overall and trading Josh Rosen. We know that Kliff Kingsbury loves Murray and that Murray would be an ideal fit for what Kingsbury wants to do. Most likely, this will come down to what kind of compensation the Cardinals could get for Rosen If it’s higher than a third-round pick, look for Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim to do some dealing.
Murray would love to play for Kingsbury and he knows Kingsbury is a fan of him. The tricky part is all this talk only drives down the value of Rosen, who appears to be the loser in all this.
Can the Cardinals get any value for Rosen? Is Murray significantly better than Rosen will be? Ultimately, it comes down to both of those questions.
This is not the first mock draft to have the Cardinals taking Murray and it will not be the last. For this analyst’s money, it will be hard to believe until his name is actually called on draft night.
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