At the NFL owners meeting, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury stated that quarterback Josh Rosen could fit into his Air Raid offense. No matter who is behind center, preparing for Arizona will be a challenge.
The Cardinals hosted both defensive draft prospects Nick Bosa and Quinnen Williams. They must do their due diligence, meeting with all top prospects, but is it possible that the Cardinals don’t need Kyler Murray to run the offense?
Kingsbury explained there isn’t a specific type of quarterback for his system.
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“No, there’s no fit,” Kingsbury said. “It’s our job whoever the coordinator is, the coach is, to build around that guy and make sure you’re doing stuff that he can do. The Air Raid it has that, I guess, give and take in it, where you can make adjustments to it and be effective with different styles of play at that position.”
Kingsbury was complimentary of Rosen and his mobility. He added that he thinks that it’s something people overlook.
“Josh can move,” Kingsbury said. “He can extend plays more than people think. You just have to be able to move off the spot, keep your eyes downfield and extend the play enough for those guys to uncover and when you watch the tape, he does a good job of that."
Kingsbury's affinity for Murray is well known, but either way preparing for the Cardinals at the beginning of the 2019 season will be challenging for NFL staffs.
San Francisco 49ers
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t think watching film of Kingsbury's Texas Tech teams will be much help.
“I don’t think guys are going to be studying a lot of Texas Tech stuff to get ready,” Shanahan said. “You’re going to have to see what it is and each game is different and you have got to adjust as the year goes but everyone will look at the preseason obviously and some of it will be smoke and mirrors and some of it will be what they want to do.
“It’s something you’ve just got to adjust to as coaches. But yes, you want to know what you’re getting and you’ve got to wait and see.”
Kingsbury agreed with Shanahan noting that some of his concepts from his college days might be reviewed but that his offense will evolve as he installs it in Arizona.
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll go back to the college tapes and see what we did there,” Kingsbury said. “But I think it will look distinctively different to start once we get everybody here and figure out what we have on the roster and get draft picks in.
“But yeah, I think it’s not a deal where they can go back to years of me being in the NFL and studying it and get tendencies and all those things. It’s going to be a different game here and a different style of play.”
When any new concept is introduced into the NFL, there is an advantage. Shanahan believes that for at least a little while, the Cardinals will have that on their side.
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“When you have a system you believe in that plays off of each other and it’s sound, that can work everywhere,” Shanahan said. “The option can work in the NFL, it can work in college, I’m sure what they do can work.
“It’s about committing to something and getting the right people to run it and if you don’t, you’ve got to adjust because no one just waits. You’ve got to always be able to adjust and that’s what this league is about.”