Arizona Cardinals Kyler Murray is one of the most confusing players for NFL defenses to figure out. He may only be 5’8"—er, I mean 5’10”—but his arm is a lot better than people realize, as well as his accuracy, and he’s might be more dynamic with his legs (10 rushing touchdowns in only 22 career games). But Kyler Murray is also one of the most confusing players for anybody to figure out, because while the Cardinals have been winning… he hasn’t particularly been good.
Coming into this season Murray was a dark-horse MVP candidate: he was coming off a year in which he won Rookie of the Year, added the best receiver in football in Deandre Hopkins and resigned running back Kenyan Drake and left tackle DJ Humphries. And to top that off, this was his second year under innovative head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid-influenced offense. Murray was set up for a spectacular sophomore year, but… that hasn’t been the case at all. Yes, the Cardinals are sitting at a solid 4-2 and tied for second in the NFC West, but Murray’s play has definitely regressed.
Sophomore slumps are incredibly common and perfectly normal in the NFL, as teams have had an entire offseason to study second-year players and all their patterns and tendencies. Dak Prescott endured a second-year slump, Baker Mayfield went through one (and is still going through it), and even older QBs like Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers went through problems in their second seasons. So maybe I’m reading a little too much into this. But still, the numbers are shocking: Murray has had a turnover in every game he’s played this season (except for when he played the historically bad Dallas defense), has only two games where he’s completed over 69% of his passes, and has passed for 230 or less in half of his games.
And despite all of this, Murray is STILL throwing touchdowns. In the Week 4 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Murray completed 24 of 31 passes for 133 (less than five yards an attempt) and had a fumble… but he also threw for THREE touchdowns and no interceptions. On Monday against Dallas, Murray only completed 9 (NINE!) of 24 passes but still had 188 yards passing and 2 TDs. Two of his worst games the season and he still put up 5 passing touchdowns while also hurting teams with his legs.
Even though he is going through growing pains as a quarterback, the Cardinals are still excelling and for what it’s worth Murray has acknowledged his struggles and that he needs to be better. Good quarterbacks are able to recognize their weaknesses make up for them through hard work in the film room, practice, and on the field, so we shouldn’t be surprised when Murray bounces back from this because Kyler Murray is still a good quarterback… right?