Cardinals’ confidence in Kyler Murray not lost ahead of pivotal 2025
Jan 6, 2025, 5:11 PM
TEMPE — There is a clear divide when it comes to Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.
On one side, you have the K1 doubters, those who believe this team is doing nothing but spinning its tires on a signal caller who can’t win late in the year.
On the other sits the K1 truthers who think Murray is the answer to get where this team wants to go: a Super Bowl.
But while the disconnect between the two sides is very much real, the team remains firmly on the latter side of the debate.
“100%,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said when asked by Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo if Murray will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2025.
“Very high ceiling. Very high ceiling,” Gannon added. “He’s a top-level, franchise quarterback. He’s played like that, he’s shown that.”
“I want to win Super Bowls.”
Kyler Murray comments on the 2024 season and offseason ahead. pic.twitter.com/p8qx4HX5Og
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) January 6, 2025
Kyler Murray’s rocky 2025
It was very much a tale of two halves of the season for Murray in 2024.
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Across the first 10 games of the season, Murray was proving he was Arizona’s rightful starting quarterback behind 2,058 yards and 12 touchdowns to three interceptions on 69.2% passing for a 100.8 passer rating. He added another 371 yards and four touchdowns on 46 carries.
More importantly, he and the Cardinals sported a 6-4 record and were tops in the NFC West heading into the bye.
But just as it looked like Murray and Co. had turned a corner heading into the second half of the season, the wheels fell off.
On top of his team losing five of its last seven games to finish third in the division, Murray regressed with eight interceptions to nine touchdowns on 68.3% passing. His passer rating dropped to 85.9 while seeing fewer carries (32), yards (201) and scores (one) in the run game.
Are there clear areas Murray must improve upon this offseason? Absolutely. Even with his four-touchdown effort to end the year and the second-highest passing yardage of his career (3,851), fine-tuning his connection with Marvin Harrison Jr. — and the rest of the receiving corps — is a great place to start.
But for as much as the onus is on Murray to find consistency ahead of a big Year 7, it doesn’t all fall on him.
As Gannon has said time and time again — especially when Murray has been brought up — “it takes all 11.”
“I’m really excited for him moving forward, because I think that we’re going to be a better team around him. … We got to be a good team and he obviously fits into that being our franchise quarterback,” Gannon said.
