Cardinals
From the moment the Cardinals hired HC Kliff Kingsbury last season, the Cardinals were tied to Kingsbury’s former quarterback at Texas A&M, Kyler Murray. While Arizona ended up dumping former top-10 QB Josh Rosen for Murray after just one season, team owner Michael Bidwill said that wasn’t a foregone conclusion when they hired Kingsbury.
“I think there was a perception outside the organization that coach Kingsbury came in here lobbying,” Bidwill said via Kyle Odegard of the team website. “Absolutely not. From the very beginning, he knew the deal was that Josh Rosen was going to be our quarterback. This wasn’t like a package deal, where if you’re going to hire me, wink-wink, we’re going to draft Kyler. No. We were very clear. We’re sticking with Josh, because we didn’t want to raise the expectation that that was going to happen. The scouts had not gone through their process. If you ask Coach, who did he want to take and why? He would tell you, but he never once lobbied.”
- According to ESPN’s Ed Werder, the Cardinals have not been approached by any teams about a trade for WR Christian Kirk and are not planning on moving him.
49ers
- 49ers GM John Lynch says trading DT DeForest Buckner was the “toughest thing” he’s done since becoming a general manager. Lynch explained that it simply wasn’t going to be possible to keep the team together and sign Buckner to extension at his price. (Nick Wagoner)
- As for potential Buckner replacements, Lynch first mentioned D.J. Jones followed by Solomon Thomas, Kevin Givens, Jullian Taylor and Kentavius Street in that order. (Matt Barrows)
- Lynch mentioned that he has no regrets on trading a second-round pick for Dee Ford because of what he brings to the table as an edge rusher. (Matt Maiocco)
- Lynch said of LT Joe Staley coming back for the 2020 season: “We’ve heard nothing that would lead us to believe that Joe is not going to play.” (Nick Wagoner)
- Out of a number of 49ers like RB Matt Breida, WR Marquise Goodwin, DE Solomon Thomas and WR Dante Pettis, NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco says the only player that realistically would have much of a market is Breida.
- Even then, Maoicco points out the market for running backs isn’t that strong, so something on Day 3 of the draft would make sense if anything happens.
- Maoicco adds he doesn’t see Goodwin or Pettis having much of a market, with Goodwin a likely cap cut and Pettis firmly on the roster bubble.
- Temple LB Shaun Bradley met informally with the 49ers at the Combine and has also had a video meeting with San Francisco. (Matt Maiocco)
Seahawks
- Seahawks CB Neiko Thorpe‘s one-year deal includes a $137,500 signing bonus, $1,050,000 million base salary and counts $887,500 against the cap under the veteran salary benefit. (Brady Henderson)
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@Logan Ulrich…. when did Kingsbury coach at Texas A&M? And when did Kyler Murray ever play from him in college? Figure it out