Chris Landry is one of the smartest minds in football. Thatās a fact. And his forte is with scouting, talent evaluation and assisting teams to get the best bang for their buck when signing athletes.
Out of all the Kyler Murray mania we have been discussing this week, Landry's statements about what the Cardinals may truly be doing at team headquarters were fascinating. Sure, the general storylines out there are things such as āthe team is shopping Josh Rosenā but āthe team is not actively shopping Josh Rosenā or āthe team has no idea what they will do with their #1 pickā or āKyler Murray is a done deal to the Arizona Cardinals,ā etc, etc. But Chris Landry has cleared the nonsense and he has let it slip what the realities of Cardinals headquarters just may be.
The Murray conversation starts around the 2:45 mark in this interview, when after the question, Chris Landry responded by how he didnāt think that signing Kyler Murray was truly a done deal, EVEN IF it was indeed what the Cardinals wanted to eventually do. He went on to say that there is so much more to the overall process and how the Cardinals in particular may have another hurdle to clear⦠baseball.
Listen for the full interview context, but this was interesting indeed:
āYou gotta cross all the Tās and dot all the Iās⦠once you do that, this is something that people may not be as aware of, once they decide, IF they decide that Kyler Murray is their guy (or anyone else for that matter)⦠they can begin negotiating with him like today⦠you can do a deal today with him. You donāt have to wait until the draft... So my advice would be, is if they come to that decision and that's who they want, they would get him nailed to a contract⦠that option of baseball is always out there⦠and before Iām makin a trade with my current quarterback, Iām makin sure that I've got this guy in full... That would be the approach I would take if thatās what they want to do.
āI will say this, that itās tough to get really comfortable with their decision making process⦠when you make a decision āSteve Wilksā our guy⦠Josh Rosenās our quarterback and weāre good to go, and then twelve months later... you are scrappin both of those plans⦠and you hire a first time head coach in the NFL, a guy thatās been an adequate head coach in college, and this is your answer⦠it may work, I hope it works, but boy, what a risk it is!ā
"I think they need to get moving on it⦠I would encourage them to do one if itās with Murray b/c of the fact that it would kind of reduce that leverage that he has over you, as he always has that option⦠to go back to baseball⦠Iād wanna close that door before Iād think about where I'm gonna move Josh Rosen and what Iām gonna get for him.
"⦠and then what if they only get a 3rd round pick for Rosen? That will look like egg on their face big time in terms of their decision making⦠if it doesnāt work, itās probably gonna cost everybody their jobs. If it does work, all will be forgiven. You know how that is.ā