© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
There are alternate universes in which Nick Bosa is wearing the red of the Arizona Cardinals, not the San Francisco 49ers. Had the Oakland A’s offered Kyler Murray a larger signing bonus and/or the Cardinals not hired Kliff Kingsbury as their head coach, Bosa, in all likelihood, would have been headed to Arizona. That was the presumption for months, until Kingsbury was hired on January 8th. A month later, Murray said he’d be choosing football over baseball.
All of a sudden, Bosa had fallen into the 49ers’ lap and halfway through the season—with the team lead for tackles for a loss (11), QB hits (13), and sacks (7.0), along with 20 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception—is now the clear favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, and is certainly in contention for Defensive Player of the Year.
Kingsbury discussed the decision to choose Murray over Bosa (the Cardinals, of course, traded their first-round pick from a year earlier, Josh Rosen, to the Miami Dolphins). The decision, according to Kingsbury, was in no part due to a lack of confidence in Bosa, which was actually improved by the Cardinals’ addition of former Ohio State linebackers coach (2017-18) Bill Davis.
“We loved Nick Bosa the entire process,” Kingsbury said. “Phenomenal person, competitor, player. What you’re seeing him do week in, week out, was kind of the expectation. We had a coach on our staff [Davis] that was out at Ohio State, so we had intimate knowledge of his work ethic and who he is. So we were all on board, all fired up about him. We ended up taking Kyler, we thought it was the best move for our organization. But we knew that whoever was going to take Nick was going to get a dominant player in this league.”
The Cardinals, however, run a 3-4 scheme, meaning Bosa would have needed some sort of positional adjustment. Kingsbury confirmed that Bosa may have had to play as a rushing outside linebacker (though he’d likely still be on the line plenty, similar to how Dee Ford was used in Kansas City).
“I’m not sure how he’d have transitioned,” Kingsbury said. “I think probably a little bit of both (as a 3-4 lineman and outside linebacker) to start, but I could have seen him standing up as a WILL or a SAM for us.”