Cardinals’ Kyler Murray finishes middle of pack in final QB rankings
Jan 9, 2021, 7:08 AM | Updated: 10:27 pm
Quarterback Kyler Murray #1 of the Arizona Cardinals passes the ball against the Seattle Seahawks in the third quarter of the game at State Farm Stadium on October 25, 2020 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
With the end of the NFL season comes the end of the year assessments.
Multiple outlets have ranked how quarterbacks performed in the regular season, and the Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray finished in the teens on two different sets of rankings.
Sports Info Solutions’ “World’s No. 1 QB Rankings,” an analytical model taking into consideration multiple metrics, placed Murray 16th. The model’s determining statistic is Points Above Average (PAA), which is meant to demonstrate how above or below average a quarterback was.
Murray’s PAA was 0.6, indicating that he was just slightly above average according to the metric. The second-year QB was sandwiched by Detroit’s Matthew Stafford (0.9 PAA) and Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield (0.4 PAA) on the rankings.
On Pro Football Focus, Murray finished 11th in his final season mark through their game-by-game grading system.
Murray took great strides in his second season, improving his passing grade by 16 points and becoming one of the most dynamic rushing threats in the league. He earned the No. 9 passing grade on deep passes while ranking second in rushing yards (822) and touchdowns (11) among quarterbacks. The next step is improving at the intermediate (10-19 yard) level, where Murray’s passing grade ranked just 27th.
The two placements back up where Murray landed on the passing leaderboards. Murray placed 13th in passing yards (3,971), 14th in QBR (69.1), 18th in quarterback rating (94.3) and tied for 12th in touchdowns (26).
