Kyler Murray is considered a franchise NFL quarterback, and his road to stardom has been littered with ups and downs. Way more lows than highs this season. According to the diminutive dynamo and former Heisman winner, he’s at his lowest point since his rookie season.
Murray claims that football hasn’t been this hard since his rookie year, and the way he and the Arizona Cardinals are playing reflects that sentiment extremely accurately.
“Probably rookie year, that’s probably the last time sh-t has felt this hard,” Murray told Azcardinals.com writer Darren Urban after Sunday’s 19-9 Cardinals loss at Seattle.
The shifty scrambling QB has been put through the wringer through his first six games of this season. The Cardinals are sitting at 2-4 through a third of the season and are in last place in the NFC West, after much optimism entering the season. It’s been very hard for Murray to move the ball, and he got sacked six times on Sunday.
Kyler Murray threw for 222 yards and added 100 on 10 carries with his legs.
Arizona scored 9 points and lost.
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) October 16, 2022
The NFC West division is wide open for the Cardinals to make a comeback if they can right the ship.
The Los Angeles Rams, who are coming off of a Super Bowl victory, have been playing poor football this year as well, as the “Superbowl hangover” seems to be in effect for them.
The Seattle Seahawks traded their former franchise QB Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos and weren’t even sure if Geno Smith would be starting over Drew Lock at the beginning of the season.
The 49ers were planning on embarking on their season under their new franchise QB Trey Lance before he was injured a few weeks back. Basically, each team in that NFC West besides the Cardinals has issues that could potentially hold them back.
The Cardinals looked to be solid and the only thing hindering them was Deandre Hopkins’ six-week suspension. With Hopkins down for a spell, Arizona traded for former Baltimore Ravens receiver “Hollywood” Brown. Also, with players like JJ Watt, Buddha Baker, and Byron Murphy Jr., the Cardinals looked to be the most balanced team in the NFC West, besides the Rams.
But let’s be real, this all looks good on paper. At the end of the day, however, Murray hasn’t been worth the $230 million that the Cardinals are spending on him. Murray only has six touchdown passes, compared with four interceptions, this season, with a 65 per completion percentage.
The narrative that disgruntled fans and social media mouths have come to is that Kyler Murray has stopped caring about football after getting paid. Many posts on social media suggest that he doesn’t care and that the coaches have to treat him like a kid when dealing with him, hence the study clause that they rescinded from his contract.
Plus, a hilarious take that shows how Kyler Murray’s performance decreases when 2XP comes out on Call of Duty, versus how he plays better when 2XP isn’t there over the weekends on Call of Duty.
While these takes do have some validity, the truth is that the Cardinals are being outcoached and Murray is underperforming. According to Kliff Kingsbury, their offensive play-calling has been piss-poor, and he’s open to new offensive ideas after going down 2-4.
“I am open to anything that helps us score more points and helps us win,” Kingsbury said this week. “We will see where it all goes, but yeah, whatever it takes to win, I’m all for it.”
That’s terrible to hear coming from your head coach and leader.
It’s not getting any easier for Murray as far as weaponry goes. The Cardinals reportedly lost Hollywood Brown for some time, but the good news is that the Cards will be getting Hopkins back from suspension, and they just traded for deep threat receiver Robbie Anderson, who just a day before his trade was sent to the locker room by interim head coach Steve Wilks in the middle of the game after getting into heated arguments with coaches during Sunday’s loss.
Zach Ertz is a bright spot and still one of the better tight ends in this league. James Conner provides a versatile backfield threat. All the pieces are there for Murray, but the narrative of him not taking the game seriously is starting to stand out, and it seems that for Arizona to succeed, Murray needs to lock in.
If the Cardinals miss the playoffs this year, especially with what’s going on in the NFC West, it will not look pretty for some people involved in that organization.
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