Steve Keim: Cardinals traded Rosen because Kyler is a generational talent

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 14, 2019, 9:29 AM EDT
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Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim poured a whole lot of resources into the quarterback position in 2018, with nothing to show for it in 2019. And he’s OK with that.

Keim signed Sam Bradford and paid him $16 million before cutting him midway through the season, signed Mike Glennon and paid him $5 million before cutting him after the season, and traded up to the 10th overall pick in the draft to select Josh Rosen and traded him away for the 62nd overall pick a year later.

So why does Keim feel good about himself now? Because, he says, 2019 first overall pick Kyler Murray is going to be so great that he makes everything else worth it.

“You have to make the tough decisions and avoid the outside noise— ‘Why’d you give up on this guy? Why would you trade this guy?'” Keim told TheRinger.com. “It’s unprecedented. I took [Rosen] in the top 10. I just felt that [Murray] was a generational talent that I just couldn’t pass up.”

Keim has made a very big bet on Murray. If it turns out that he bet wrong, it may be the last time he gets to choose a franchise quarterback.

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69 responses to “Steve Keim: Cardinals traded Rosen because Kyler is a generational talent”

  1. How does Sam Bradford keep getting paid? I’ve never seen a player get so much money for such little productivity.

  2. Talk about betting the house, going all in etc. Of course Ron Wolf did the same thing with Brett Favre. Bet the whole shooting match on a mechanics challenged, third string QB who was a huge drunk. Odds are this was a one in a billion shot that can’t happen again but time will tell.

  3. Why dont you let him play some games before making big statements like this. Im pretty sure you said the same thing about Jonathan Cooper, Robert Nkemdiche, Deone Bucannon. You’ve had 7 1st round picks and only 3 are still on the team. Seems to me the odds are not in your favor.

  5. I respect him for going all-out and stopping at nothing to get his guy…I just don’t think Murray will be “generational.”

    But as a Bills fan I wished they would’ve drafted a QB every single years until one of them stuck…that’s how every QB-needy team should handle that situation.

    It’s the most important position in sports.

  6. The guy has done more than enough to be fired over the last few years and now he’s about to be bailed out by Murray. Funny how a franchise QB can mask years of ineptitude.

  8. Hope so, it will be fun. Unless he get squished by 300 lb D-lineman and his career is ended early. Or he is gun shy until he gives up. David Carr, Joey Harrington

  11. Guess who’s out of a job if Rosen goes on to be a quality QB and Murray busts. Add on top of that hiring a head coach that just got fired from the Big 12. This may not end well.

  12. Man Cards better hope this doesnt flop. When your employer feeds your ego like your friends and family could mean disaster, especially when you havent done anything at this level yet. Havent any of these front office people learned from the Snyder RG3 debacle?

  13. I wish Murray well, but all too often people jump to “generational talent” or some other absurd term. He’s not thrown a pass in a regular season game yet.

  14. This guy should have been fired 1 DUI and 2 bad drafts ago. The Cards are like the Steelers, people can stay forever. Except the Steelers as much as it pains me to say it, tend to pick the right people.

  15. Keims success rate is very poor at best, this kid might be a generational talent but FB is a team game and what talent he has to work with is bottom of league. Be tough for the kid to carry a team…..

  17. The Cardinals will get ridiculed, but I don’t get why more teams don’t do this. The Jaguars and Bengals passed on Deshaun Watson and Pat Mahomes because they already had Blake Bortles and Andy Dalton. You can’t be afraid to cut bait and start over if the right guy is available.

    Picking the wrong QB will get a GM fired, but so will passing on the right one.

  18. Why does Keim get paid so much money to swing blindly at a pinata? I mean, don’t get me wrong, finding a franchise QB is hard. But you can’t be wrong that often and not be held accountable.

  22. If it’s true it will be a very smart decision. I hope he’s great. He looked very decisive and patient in his first appearance and his throws were very accurate. Only thing is can he take the hits that will come at his size. We will see.

  25. Fine, but why did you trade up for Rosen if he wasn’t a generational talent? You burned picks and got nothing for them. For what? Just another guy?

    It’s not that you picked Murray. It’s burning through high picks to get Rosen that’s the issue. Those picks could have helped with any of the other deficiencies you have. Murray may be a generational talent but he can’t do it by himself.

  26. You all watch, Murray is going to be a star in the NFL. Rosen was traded because they knew taking him was a mistake. Murray was drafted because the young man is going to be that good. You can make all the short jokes you want, but none of that will matter to him or AZ when he is an All-Pro QB by year 3.

  28. Murray is likely a generational talent. Unfortunately, he’s gonna get killed because Keim can’t put together a decent O-line. It’ll be fun watching Kyler until he gets hurt…sigh.

  29. He might be. But he’s played one preseason game. It seems the media appointed him High Chief of Young Quarterbacks before he ever got to the league, and then he laid an egg in the first half of the CFP against Alabama, and couldn’t come back.

    Excuse me if I believe the jury is still out. Let’s let him have a couple of seasons first. I don’t know why the media insists on promoting this guy. Why THIS guy? We let everyone else play out a while.

  32. How does Sam Bradford keep getting paid? I’ve never seen a player get so much money for such little productivity.
    ====================================================================================
    Allow me to introduce you to Mike Glennon…

  33. Next year, Keim will take another QB with the 1st overall pick. A 5’9″ 180 lb QB might be able to succeed in college, but not the NFL. Sure, he looked good against 3rd stringers and camp bodies, but that will change quickly…

  34. Patrick Mahomes? Generational talent. Possibly too soon to conclude, but it’s looking like a good bet. Kyler Murray? Possible, but definitely too soon to conclude.

  35. If he truly thought Murray is a generational talent and I am not going to argue that point. Why then would you draft Rosen in the first place? You wasted a top 10 pick on a QB that you knew wouldn’t play on the team.When you should have been adding other pieces for your team. At that place you could have drafted a really good player at another need for your team. That doesn’t add up. Not the kind of GM I would want for my team.

  36. Murray will be generational for maybe one season (my guess about 8 games), then D coordinators will have enough game film on him and Kingsbury’s offensive (that didn’t work all that well in college against some of he worst defenses in college, ie the no defense option in the Big 12). It will be interesting to see if McVay’s offense works anymore after Bill showed how easy it is to defeat against like talent. New offensives have a shelf life of about 10 to 14 games.

  37. “Talk about betting the house, going all in etc. Of course Ron Wolf did the same thing with Brett Favre. Bet the whole shooting match on a mechanics challenged, third string QB who was a huge drunk.”

    Favre was also considered a first round talent coming off a very bad car accident which hurt his draft stock. Wolf and Holgren already scouted heavily prior to the draft.

  38. Keep swinging the bat and eventually you will get that Home Run, have to respect his efforts! A team cannot be competitive in the NFL without a franchise QB.

  41. aquineas1 says:
    August 14, 2019 at 10:29 am

    How does Sam Bradford keep getting paid? I’ve never seen a player get so much money for such little productivity.
    ====================================================================================
    Allow me to introduce you to Mike Glennon…

    *laughing in Matt Flynn*

  42. Nothing quite like putting more unnecessary pressure on a young kid that’s never played a down. Plus Mahomes has set the whole “generational talent” bar very high at this point.

  44. Kyler Murray hasn’t played one game (that counts) in the NFL, yet he’s being hailed as a “generational talent.” Maybe we should let him prove that on the field first before installing him in the Hall of Fame. Just a suggestion.

    And where do the Cardinals find these wackos who work in their front office?

  47. God forbid a team draft a QB that knows the new head coach’s system backwards and forwards. Murray didn’t even have to learn a new playbook he knows it so well.

    For years, dumb NFL teams have tried to smash square pegs into circular holes by trying to force players into bad coaching schemes. The Cards actually did that last year, and quickly folded their hand. They admitted their error, and actively worked to fix it.

    The true measure of a man is what he does when things go wrong. Here, when things went wrong, Keim took responsibility and made wholesale changes to try and get the team back on track.

    Meanwhile, Seattle was a predictable one-and-done by having Martyball 2.0 run the ball repeatedly into oblivion despite having a $30 million QB on the roster. San Francisco’s GM went all in on repeatedly injured players like Jimmy G. and Jerick McKinnon, but at least they have a highly-paid fullback! Houston doesn’t even have a GM and their defense has been getting worse each and every year. Nooooooo criticism there though, eh?

    Cards will start out 6-5 before finishing 7-9 or 8-8.

  49. Since, everyone with a brain knew that before the draft why did you decide to look like a fool and act like you didn’t know what you were going to do?

  50. Since you had the #1 selection why the fake drama? Trade Rosen earlier. Instead you put Rosen in a bad situation with the media and the organization looked like a bumbling mess. All for a foregone conclusion. You should have been fired for the way you handled a simple situation.

  51. I am changing the name of my fantasy team to “Sam Bradford’s Agent”. This guy is obviously amazing at his job.

  52. The quarterback is the most important position on the team. I like the aggressiveness. If you think Kyler Murray will be great, and your current QB is not living up to expectations, then do it.

  54. Maybe the game has changed…..but I don’t think that much. A 5’9″ QB will work for a bit, and then DC’s will scheme against him and he will get crushed.

  57. tb12bestqbevah says:
    August 14, 2019 at 10:52 am
    Oh so Murray is going to be better than Mahomes? And Mayfield?

    Mayfield. Lol.

  60. He may very well be but will he last? NFL will test his durability for sure unlike the cream puff PAC 12.

  62. Keim is the last GM I would want running my team but he’s right. You don’t pass on a guy like that. It’s like last year when Jason Licht decided not to take Derwin James because they drafted Justin Evans the year before. How’s that working out?

  64. Does any of that sound like a guy that knows what he’s doing? And let’s just say he’s right about Murray, they hired an unsuccessful college coach…

  65. tinye67 says:
    August 14, 2019 at 12:09 pm
    Maybe the game has changed…..but I don’t think that much. A 5’9″ QB will work for a bit, and then DC’s will scheme against him and he will get crushed.

    —————————

    5’10” Russell Wilson has been playing behind a below-average O-line in Seattle for years and he’s done OK. He hasn’t gotten crushed yet. Murray is faster and has a better arm.

  66. Should have been titled: What Steve Keim must say to justify my decision to trade up in the first round for Rosen and then trade him one year later for a third rounder

  67. From the first practice I’ve watched up close it’s just as day that Murray is leaps and bounds ahead of Rosen. The speed, fast release at crazy angles, pin point accuracy is amazing. He’s built like a fire hydrant too.

  68. Kyler Murray is way way way too small…he will get annihilated…great athletes don’t always make great QBs..quarterbacks are only important because that’s how the rules makers manipulated the game..not most important but most coddled

  69. There is no way to know if he is a generational player. Practice is quite a bit easier than a real game. Lets see how he does with their crappy O-line. He will be able to scramble around better that Rosen but what QB in the NFL can excel with a horrible o-line?

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