San Francisco 49ers star Nick Bosa reportedly delivered a brutal warning to the Arizona Cardinals just before the franchise selected quarterback Kyler Murray as their first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Former Cardinals general manager Steve Keim has revealed that he and ex-head coach Kliff Kingsbury went to visit Bosa following the defensive end’s final season with Ohio State Buckeyes in the NCAA.
And Bosa pulled no punches with the message he delivered to the duo as he warned them against drafting Murray. “When Kliff Kingsbury and I got together to go to see players and have dinners, we went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and had dinner with Nick Bosa prior to the Draft,” Keim told The Herd. “And loved him, obviously.
“Our highest-graded guy on the board. Amazing in every way. He puts his arm around me and Kliff Kingsbury, both of us, in basically a headlock. And he said: ‘I think you guys are going to end up taking that little quarterback. And if you do…’. He looked over at me and said: ‘Steve, I will haunt you for the rest of your career.’”
The Cardinals had the first overall pick in the 2019 Draft and ultimately ignored Bosa’s stark warning as they snapped up Murray following his impressive two-year stint with college side Oklahoma Sooners.
The 25-year-old has gone on to feature 57 times for the Cardinals and has racked-up 84 passing touchdowns and 23 rushing touchdowns. But his team have struggled for form in the NFC and have reached the play-offs just once in the last four seasons.
Bosa, meanwhile, has enjoyed a fine career after being drafted by the 49ers and has gone on to appear 51 times for the franchise. He has recorded 43 sacks and 47 tackles over the last four seasons and helped his team reach the NFC Conference Championship last season, where they were defeated 31-7 by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Bosa will be hoping his team can compete for the Super Bowl when the new season gets underway in September. And the 25-year-old explained last month that he isn’t expecting big changes with the 49ers defence this year.
“Whenever you have success like we've had, you're not going to fix what isn't broken,” Bosa told the Richard Sherman podcast. “Obviously, there's things you’ve got to tweak, and you’ve got to get better because the NFL is constantly evolving. But [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] knows what's successful, what's got us here defensively.”
