Washington needs a quarterback, but Washington won’t be able to sink a lot of money into a quarterback, given the money committed to Alex Smith. With Smith likely to miss 2019 (and possibly never play again) after suffering a badly broken leg last season, Washington’s options are limited.
One option would be to trade for Josh Rosen, if the Cardinals indeed plan to take Kyler Murray with the first pick in the draft. Tony Pauline of DraftAnalyst.com reports that multiple sources have indicated that Washington is talking openly about trading for Rosen, if Arizona decides to make the move.
Washington holds the 15th pick in the 2019 draft; Arizona acquired Rosen with pick No. 10 a year ago. Arizona paid Rosen a signing bonus of $10.878 million and a 2018 base salary of $480,000, leaving only $6.239 million to be paid out over the next three years. Come 2022, Rosen’s fifth-year option would become the quarterback transition-tag number for 2021, since he was a top-10 pick. By 2021, however, Smith’s $31 million in remaining injury guarantees will have exited the books.
It’s unclear whether the Cardinals would take the 15th overall pick for Rosen, or whether they would want more -- especially since they’d be handing to a new team a very affordable quarterback contract, with an average of $2.079 million per year through 2021.