Is Cardinals QB Kyler Murray Making His Final Stand in Arizona?

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Will the real Kyler Murray please stand up?

The Arizona Cardinals started last season 6-4, won four in a row heading into the bye week and looked like a playoff contender. Murray played like an MVP candidate during that stretch, completing 69% of his passes for 2,058 yards, with 12 touchdown passes and just three interceptions for a 100.8 passer rating. 

Then the Cardinals dropped five of their last seven games to finish the year, missing the playoffs for a third straight season. Murray’s play dipped as well, as he posted nine touchdowns and eight interceptions over that stretch for a mediocre 85.9 passer rating.

Entering his seventh NFL season, Murray remains a polarizing figure in Arizona. After winning a Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma, he was the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and went to the Pro Bowl the following two seasons. But overall, he’s just 36-45-1 as Arizona’s starter and has never won a playoff game. 

With the 28-year-old Murray playing out a five-year, $230.5 million deal that ends in 2028, the Cardinals could use more evidence that he’s still the team’s quarterback of the future.  

“This city, this team, this organization, everybody’s ready for us to make some noise and finally take the next step,” Murray said. 

Despite last year’s disappointment, Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon decided to run it back offensively, keeping all their playmakers. The headliners include Murray, 2024 first-round pick Marvin Harrison Jr., veteran running back James Conner and emerging tight end Trey McBride.

That puts the onus on Murray and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, in their third season together, to make it all work. The expectation in the desert is for the Cardinals to reach the postseason for the first time since 2021, and Petzing is under pressure to generate a top-10 offense.  

“I don’t know in 13 years if I’ve ever walked in with the same continuity player-wise, which could be good and bad,” Petzing told me. “But I think it’s does give us a sense of who we need to emphasize and how, based on what their skill sets are.”

Petzing and the Cardinals created an identity on offense built on a bruising running game led by Conner and a passing game highlighted by Murray and playmaking tight end McBride. The Cardinals averaged 144 rushing yards per game last season, No. 7 in the NFL. Conner’s 2,134 rushing yards over the past two seasons is tied for seventh in the league. McBride’s 192 catches are tops among tight ends over that same period.

However, the Cardinals have had trouble generating big plays, making it harder to get into scoring position. Arizona finished with just 43 plays of at least 20-plus yards last season, No. 25 in the NFL. Then, when they reached the red zone, the Cardinals had trouble putting the ball in the box in 2024. They averaged just 23 points a game last season, No. 21 in the NFL, in part because they finished 56.14% in the red zone, No. 17 in the league. 

“We weren’t as explosive as we wanted to be last year or the fans wanted us to be as far as going downfield. But as far as making explosive plays, there was explosive plays all over the field,” Murray said. “We ran the hell out of the ball. If you look at the first half of my career, I don’t think we had issues as far as explosives downfield.”

One way Petzing and the Cardinals hope to increase explosive plays is by letting Murray use his legs more to get out of the pocket and put stress on defenses.

As an example of the QB using his unique skill set in critical situations to create big plays, Petzing pointed to a critical play in the fourth quarter of Arizona’s 17-15 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers last season. Murray escaped the pocket and ran for a 44-yard touchdown. 

Watching practice over a two-day period at Cardinals training camp, I saw Murray working on bootlegs and throwing on the run during individual work. 

“It’s a comfort thing you have to find,” Petzing told me. “In critical situations, in big moments early in games, the leash is off. But if we’re up by 21 points, I’m not calling a quarterback run necessarily with 10 minutes left. 

“That’s part of the balance. The other thing is when we talk about balance, a lot of those runs are read runs, and the defense doesn’t want him to have the ball either. So they’re making him give it up, which is also why James [Conner] has gone for 1,000 yards within the final two years. These issues play off one another. Yeah, Kyler didn’t get the carry, however James had a very clear look as a result of there have been two guys sitting again there hoping Kyler didn’t hold it.” 

Murray rushed for 572 yards final season, a far cry from his career-high 819 yards in 2020.

“I’m not apprehensive about what occurred up to now or what’s going to occur sooner or later. The objective is at all times to win a Tremendous Bowl,” Murray stated about his crew’s outlook this season. “And that’s going to proceed to be the objective. … For me personally, we’ve proven flashes and clearly the best of the highs with the perfect of them, however we’ve received to proceed to do it every sport.” 

Petzing spent 4 seasons as an assistant with longtime NFL offensive guru Norv Turner and considers him one among his important influences on how he places an offense collectively. Turner calls Petzing conscientious and hard-working and somebody with an intimate understanding of apply schemes. 

He additionally stated that whereas it’s on Petzing to place a scheme in place that will get essentially the most out of the gamers obtainable, it’s as much as the gamers to provide. 

“Your system can solely take you to date,” Turner stated. “Your gamers must take you to the subsequent step — studying a system, gaining expertise and changing into excellent on the issues you’re doing. That offers you the perfect likelihood of being profitable.

“Individuals need to assume there’s some magic play. No, it’s essential do issues again and again, so your gamers can get actually good at it. So, when the strain’s on and you’re in tight conditions, they know precisely what to do. They know execute it, they usually go and carry out. And I believe Drew has a very good understanding of that.”

Petzing says it’s as much as him to create the framework for gamers to have success, making it easy for his offense to execute however laborious for the protection to determine. Harrison is predicted to take one other step in improvement, in addition to No. 2 receiver Michael Wilson. Trey Benson and Emari Demercado will fill complementary roles within the operating sport behind Conner. And tight ends Tip Reiman and Elijah Higgins will likely be utilized in heavy personnel groupings, permitting Petzing to create range inside his scheme.  

“For us, whether or not it’s the quarterback run sport, motions and shifts or persevering with to combine personnel … we do issues out of 1,000,000 completely different seems to be,” Petzing stated. “So, you’re not simply defending it in nickel, you’re not simply defending it in base, you’re not defending it out of plenty of completely different formation. However to us, all of it feels the identical.

“And for the quarterbacks and gamers, they’re doing plenty of the identical duties, they usually can get actually good at them.” 

Greater than ever, Kyler Murray must be actually good at them this season.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for greater than a decade, overlaying the Los Angeles Rams for Sports activities Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma Information Tribune. Comply with him on X at @eric_d_williams.

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