Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray says he regrets scrubbing the Arizona Cardinals from his social media, per Arizona Sports.
The frustrations between Murray and the Cardinals hit a peak after this season’s collapse, which saw the team start 7-0 and end with an embarrassing 34-11 playoff loss to the L.A. Rams, dropping five of their last six games.
Murray took a lot of abuse for his average performance during that stretch. At the same time, Murray is the leader of the team and the franchise quarterback. It was a juvenile move for him to erase the Arizona Cardinals and all photos associated with them from his social media account. It was nonsensical. It was immature.
NFL analyst Damien Woody agreed and expressed his feelings on the Feb. 18 episode of “Get Up.”
“This is so dumb. It really is. This is so dumb, it just shows you the times we live in. We live in the social media era, and Kyler Murray pretty much grew up in this era where everything happens on social media. And the fact that you scrub your Instagram or your Twitter and now it’s a whole big thing … and it’s like, Kyler, you’re the face of the franchise, you’re’ the quarterback. If you have an issue, go talk to (head coach) Kliff (Kingsbury). Go talk to the bigwigs like the owners. You have that type of juice to go behind the scenes and talk to upper management about any problems you have.”
Communication Beats Tanturms
And if Murray was an adult about it, he’d sit down with management, as former GM Mike Tannenbaum suggested on the show, and find out from them what they can do to help maximize his leadership ability.
It’s the very reason why some people don’t need to have social media. If you can’t express your feelings face to face, then write a letter. If you can’t write a letter then maybe it’s not the time to do anything, but work harder, build better communication … be the man. Because Murray’s problem with the Cardinals is a bit of ego anyway.
According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Murray was embarrassed by the playoff loss and thinks he was scapegoated after.
The team didn’t scapegoat Kyler. Social media may have, but they express full confidence in him and invested a lot in Murray with expectations that he could defy the odds. The two-way phenom knew what he was signing up for. He has to get better.
“There are things about Kyler Murray as far as his game and his body language that I don’t like,” Woody added. “But also if we are going to talk about what’s going on with Arizona we have to start with Kliff Kingsbury.”
Against all odds, Murray won the Heisman and was drafted No. 1 overall by the Arizona Cardinals. He and Kingsbury were supposed to bring an unprecedented air raid to the NFL. Using Murray’s incredible elusiveness to open up passing lanes and his cannon arm to create some huge plays down the field.
The results have produced some big plays and exciting moments, but have also been inconsistent.
Woody didn’t spare Kingsbury in this unfolding NFL drama.
“We’ve seen it now and it’s a pattern dating all the way back to Texas Tech. (Kingsbury’s) teams implode at the end of the year. For some reason every year his team doesn’t know how to finish. They need to resolve all that, but if I’m Kyler Murray, go talk to the ownership, man. Stop all this scrubbing on social media nonsense.”
And to tell you the truth, Murray’s entering his fourth season in the league and is really just getting started. Still learning the position. Losing his primary receiver in DeAndre Hopkins was a brutal blow that people continue to underestimate.
Murray is a diminutive dynamo who has dominated at every level and was a draft pick of the Oakland Athletics. He turned down a $3 million advance from Oakland to return to Oklahoma for his final season.
He was lambasted in the media for that decision, as most prognosticators doubted that he could succeed as an NFL quarterback with his 5-foot-10 stature. He’s already made two Pro Bowls and won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019. Murray’s future is in his hands, and if he’s the franchise guy, he’s got to start acting like it on and off the field.
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