More significant than Charley Casserly’s report regarding the assessment of quarterback Kyler Murray’s Combine interviews was Casserly’s report that the Cardinals were “shopping” quarterback Josh Rosen last week in Indianapolis.
Setting aside the question of whether Casserly, who isn’t a reporter, was accurately describing what the Cardinals were doing (they may have been merely gauging interest in a potential trade, in order to make the most informed decision regarding their plans for the No. 1 overall pick), the fact that someone regards Rosen as available means that someone believes the Cardinals plan to take Murray with the first overall pick in the draft.
Which means that someone apparently wants to make the Cardinals sufficiently weak in the knees to pass on Murray.
With the universe of teams that interviewed Murray last week at 10 and with (supposedly) as few as three and as many as 10 of those teams whispering a negative review to Casserly about Murray’s performance, it’s hardly beyond plausibility to think that one or more of those teams: (1) want Murray; and (2) realize that they can’t get Murray if the Cardinals take him.
It’s unclear which teams want Murray to fall past No. 1, and it’s possible that the team that wants Murray to fall doesn’t want to draft Murray. It’s possible that one or more teams want him to fall not to draft him but to trade to someone else the ability to draft him.
Case in point: The Jets. They currently hold the third overall pick, and they currently don’t need a young franchise quarterback. And their current G.M. got the job as a result of a search process in which Casserly served as a consultant.
Is it crazy to think that Casserly may be trying to help a protégé maximize the haul that the Jets could get for Murray if both the Cardinals and 49ers pass on him? Mike Maccagnan already has said that he’s willing to deal the pick, and the Jets surely would like to recoup some of the picks they gave up last year in moving up from No. 6 to No. 3 in order to get quarterback Sam Darnold.
Regardless, the one-two punch from Casserly regarding the Cardinals “shopping” Rosen and unnamed scouts crapping on Murray suggests that other teams are thinking that Murray is going to be the No. 1 pick, and that they’re doing everything they can to get the Cardinals to think twice (or thrice) before going through with it.