Mel Kiper says he’s 99.9-percent sure that Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray will be the first overall pick in the 2019 draft, which is both promising for Murray and just a little ominous, given that this kind of boast invites the 0.1-percent outcome to occur. Despite scattered claims that the Cardinals will go elsewhere, the signs indeed continue to point to Murray being the first player taken.
The latest assertion to the contrary comes from former NFL receiver Antonio Bryant, who tweeted on Monday that he has "[h]eard from people inside the Cardinals organization that Nick Bosa is #1 on their board and that they are going to stick with Josh Rosen at QB.” That’s not only a bold claim but also an invitation to the Cardinals to try to figure out which members of the coaching and/or scouting staff know and/or have been talking to Bryant. Besides, if this were true and if people were blabbing about it publicly, there would be more reports to this effect.
Or would there be? The news gatherers at ESPN and NFL Network may be under orders to neither report that Murray will be the guy nor report that he won’t be, at least not until Thursday night’s effort to draw a major live audience of human eyeballs officially begins. Maybe the likes of Rap Sheet and Schefty know something that they simply can’t disclose for fear of defying those who sign their paychecks.
Regardless, the signs continue to point to Murray being the guy, and I’m sticking with the basic logic that, until Murray cancels his plans to travel to Nashville for the draft or until multiple and credible reports from leading NFL reporters emerge that Murray won’t be the pick, he’s under the clear impression he’ll be the top pick. And Murray will know whether he will or won’t be the top pick because his agent, Erik Burkhardt, also represents Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury.
The best new is that, in only two days, the rest of us will definitely know where Murray is going to be playing.