Kyler Murray’s roller-coaster career hits another peak vs. Rams

This week's QB spotlight focuses on the quarterback who had their best week on the field and in a sports context, and Week 2 offered a wealth of worthy options, including Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, Geno Smith and Justin Fields. all 2-0, Week 1 QB of the Week Sam Darnold as well. Tropical Storm Minshewmania has moved into the Las Vegas desert. Captain Comeback Back On Monday Night FootballAaron Rodgers won his first game with the Jets, and Andy Dalton Done It was the Panthers' first win since Week 3, and Malik Willis has done something Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford and Lamar Jackson have yet to do this season: win a game.

But the quarterback who's doing better this week than the rest of the league is a player who, for some reason, isn't nicknamed “The Wizard” after the video-game-obsessed character played by Fred Savage in the movie of the same name, and a player who less than a year ago had pundits wondering if he could be traded or cut: Kyler Murray. In fact, Murray's performance in the 41-10 win over the Tigers was… LA Rams It was very good. literally It got him into the Hall of Fame.

*His jersey

Back at the start of the 2023 season, there were rumors the Cardinals were simply biding their time until they could officially waive or trade Murray, just one year into his five-year, $230.5 million contract extension. Murray missed the first half of the season recovering from ACL surgery, and at the time, there were rumors that: Specifically, former NFL general manager and Pat McAfee Show regular Michael Lombardi.Arizona may be better off keeping him on the bench for a year, as further injuries could give them more guarantees heading into 2024.

Report by Jeff Howe of The Athletic on Nov. 11, 2023Just one day before Murray was set to return to the field, an unnamed NFL executive said Kyler was “not a trade target” and that “changing that contract would be problematic.” The same article went on to say that if Murray was indeed a trade target, executives would expect him to be waived.

For their own work, anonymous sources have been privy to the Titans, Giants, SteelersWould the Panthers, Broncos or any team be willing to pay another $230 million on top of the $230 million already owed to Kyler Murray? do not have We need to see Will Revis and Daniel Jones play on offense again.

If Murray has indeed dabbled in trade targets, here's what was deemed “untradeable” a few months ago:

Before last season even began, ESPN's Dan Graziano Christopher Knox of Bleacher Report wrote the article He explained why the Cardinals will likely “let go” of Murray after the 2023 season because they estimate Arizona will likely lose a lot of games and be tempted to draft Caleb Williams or Drake Maye as a replacement. Graziano waited just a year after Murray signed his contract extension. Here's a look at how the Cardinals can get out of this situation:

“If the Cardinals decide to release Murray after the 2023 season, they would be paying him $103.3 million over the two years of his contract, with a dead-money cap hit of roughly $81.5 million in 2024 (or $48.3 million in 2024 and $33.2 million in 2025 if they release Murray after June 1).”

It's not like reporters and analysts are suddenly popping up and concocting some outlandish opinion about why Arizona had to fire Murray. So I hold up Howe, Graziano and Knox as examples, not as outliers who don't understand football, but because they're not the only ones. They're not the only ones. The idea that the Cardinals would part ways with Murray after the 2023 season is basically universal, and at best, there would have been at least some who acknowledged that Murray's post-contract rifts were not ideal for the quarterback or the franchise.

A year after celebrating his debut as a true franchise quarterback and leading the Cardinals to an astounding 7-0 start in 2021 as a bona fide MVP candidate, Murray struggled in his lone playoff start against the Rams and stumbled to a 3-7 start in 2022. Then, in December, he tore his ACL in a game against the Patriots.Arizona then fired Kliff Kingsbury, the only head coach and offensive coordinator he'd ever known in the NFL, and general manager Steve Keim, who drafted him and signed him to a contract extension.

The franchise may decide to part ways with Murray and decide he doesn't fit into the team's new offensive line under coordinator Drew Petzing, who is a descendant of Kevin Stefanski and may be looking for a more traditional pocket passer at quarterback.

Murray's future will depend on how he plays with Petzing and whether he plays with Petzing, assuming the Cardinals allow Murray to return last season.

In reality, the Cardinals I couldn't wait for Murray to come back. Because “tanking” in the real world probably doesn't feel as good as the idea of ​​tanking when you're looming over a potential No. 1 pick and you're 1-8 after being shut out 27-0 by Stefanski's team. BrownsMurray returned in Week 10 of last season and led Arizona to a 25-23 win over the Falcons. The Cardinals won two more games with Murray as the starter and secured the No. 4 overall draft pick, which turned out to be a spot where their quarterback depth dipped and their receiver depth thrived.

Despite “only” clocking 16 mph in his NFL debut (about 15 mph faster than those mocking him), Marvin Harrison Jr. showed off why the Cardinals selected him fourth overall last season and as the missing piece they've been missing since DeAndre Hopkins last played for Arizona in 2022. Murray and Harrison combined for one of the most unlikely touchdown catches so far this season, according to Next Gen Stats, when he He is the first rookie since his father in 1996 to have four catches and two touchdowns in the first quarter..

If Harrison is forced to play with Josh Dobbs, Clayton Tune and Ryan Tannehill; These are touchdowns that never happened.You see, we talk about “yards after the catch” and “yards after contact,” but no one has created a statistic about “passing yards after escaping a sack,” and Murray has likely led the NFL in that category since 2019.

Kyler Murray completed 17 of 21 passes for 266 yards, three touchdowns, a perfect passer rating, and 59 yards rushing in a blowout win over Matthew Stafford's Rams in Week 2. As a quarterback weapon at this level (whose escape ability is both incredible and expected for a rare player like Murray), defenses will have a hard time knowing when to stack the box, when to spy, and when to cover because if you chase Kyler, he might run away, if you cover him, you'll get pinned by James Conner (122 rushing yards in Week 2), and if you stack the box, Marvin Harrison will beat you over the top.

You may not believe we're saying this, but Arizona CardinalsBut it's even harder to believe the same could be said about Kyler Murray's Cardinals, given how many were saying his untimely departure from Arizona was inevitable. Kyler Murray was the league's biggest laughing stock when his “video game” clause contract was made public a few years ago.

He was smiling all over the field in Week 2, and the Cardinals are happier than ever with their investment.

What he said was

After the 41-10 victory, Murray gets out of the pocket and makes a play. It only makes him more excited and more confident heading into the next play.

“You feel guys crowding around you, trying to get past them,” Murray said after his team's 41-10 victory over Los Angeles, “and then I look up and I see Elijah in the back of the end zone. As soon as the ball left my hand, I had a feeling it was going to be a touchdown.”

“When we're playing at a fast pace, it feels good to have guys moving around in scramble drills and doing things that aren't planned.”

Murray told Fox in his post-match interview: “We made them pay the price,” he said after the win. But was he talking about the Rams, the skeptics or the Cardinals' ownership? Not a penny wasted this week.