West Notes: Bradford, Raiders, Chiefs

The Cardinals gave Sam Bradford a hefty deal to be their starting quarterback in 2018, but that’s no longer a certainty after their selection of UCLA’s Josh Rosen in the first round.

“We got Sam to be our starting quarterback and I would still say that is the case,” coach Steve Wilks said when asked if Bradford will be the starter (via Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic). “I’m very excited about Josh … what he can bring. Every position is open for competition.”

The selection of Rosen marked the first time in 12 years the Cardinals drafted a quarterback in the first three rounds. They also gave up third- and fifth-round picks in order to advance to the No. 10 pick for him.

Clearly, the Cardinals believe that the future is very bright for Rosen, but he is also regarded by some as the most NFL-ready of any QB from this draft class. For Rosen and Arizona, the future could be the present.

Here’s more from the West divisions:

• The Raiders converted $7.085MM center Rodney Hudson’s 2018 base salary into a bonus, creating $5.668MM in cap space, a league source tells Field Yates of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The move had to be made in order to make room for the Raiders’ draft class as well as the acquisition of wide receiver Martavis Bryant.
• Due to the Raiders already paying Seth Roberts his $2MM roster bonus, the slot target’s $2.25MM 2018 salary is fully guaranteed. Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweets there are also incentives in Roberts’ deal — $150K for 45 receptions and another $150K if he eclipses his career-high mark (43 grabs last season) by a bigger margin and reaches 65 — and adds that Roberts may not be easy to move despite this draft featuring a less-than-stellar wideout contingent. But Oakland is trying to do so. Roberts has been Oakland’s primary slot man since the 2015 season, but his work has been consistently maligned by Pro Football Focus.
• The Chiefs did not have a first-round pick on Thursday, but they did try to trade into the back end of the first round, as Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star writes. “I was (tempted),” GM Brett Veach said. “We make calls. But if you were to ask me, what were the odds of getting into round one, I would have said they were very low. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. We certainly had dialogue from (picks) 27 to 32. But it had to make sense for us, both now and in the future. It never got close.” The Chiefs traded their first-rounder to the Bills for the right to select Patrick Mahomes last year.

Sam Robinson contributed to this report.