The Arizona Cardinals added another twist to the lead up to next month’s NFL Draft.
Cardinals brass spent Friday night dining with Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a league source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
After months of chatter linking the Cardinals to Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, Friday’s dinner showed Arizona has yet to make a final decision on their draft choice.
The Cardinals hold the No. 1 pick in the draft, and Bosa is the No. 1 overall rated prospect in ESPN’s Mel Kiper’s latest rankings.
The Cardinals have also met with Murray, another favorite to be selected with the top pick. New Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim met with the Heisman Trophy winner in Oklahoma last week.
Both Kingsbury and Murray are represented by the same agent. However, Cardinals linebackers coach Bill Davis coached Bosa in the same role at Ohio State.
A franchise-altering decision awaits Arizona.
Should the Cardinals choose Murray, it would mean they would be looking to trade quarterback Josh Rosen, who they took with their first-round pick (No. 10) in last year’s draft. He appeared in 14 games (13 starts) during his rookie season, completing 55.2 percent of his passes and throwing for 2,278 yards with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions for a Cardinals team that won just three games.
Asked last month at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis whether Rosen is the Cardinals’ quarterback, Keim said, “Is Josh Rosen our quarterback? Yeah, he is, right now, for sure.”
Some teams made overtures into Rosen’s availability at the combine, Schefter reported,
Kiper rates Murray as the No. 6 overall pick in the draft, but his latest Mock Draft has the Cardinals taking him.
Bosa, Kiper says, is the best pass-rusher in a class full of good ones. He is advanced for his age in his technique; that may be thanks to his brother, Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa, and dad, John, both former first-round picks.
Nick Bosa finished his college career with 17.5 sacks in two-plus seasons, though his college career was shortened by core muscle surgery in September 2018, that knocked him out for the rest of the season.
The Cardinals switched back to a 3-4 defense this year under new defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.
“4-3 college ends, they grow to be outside backers,” Joseph said.