The time is now for Cardinals’ Kyler Murray to fill the hole in his resume with a playoff win
Few can match the Kyler Murray experience in Arizona. It's time for the seventh-year quarterback to put the money where his talent is.
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Football towns forge deep relationships with their quarterbacks. Most of them become obsessed and highly toxic.
Few can match the Kyler Murray experience in Arizona.
Our NFL quarterback has been gifted with mid-level greatness. He was exalted as a schoolboy phenom and hailed as one of the greatest high school athletes in American history. He is a diminutive athlete with a Texas-sized legend, idolized for nearly a decade during his most impressionable and formative years.
Now time is running out on Murray, the only player ever drafted in the top 10 picks of the NFL and MLB draft.
That includes his time in Arizona, his quest for NFL greatness and the opportunity to become a real icon, the football version of Steph Curry, inspiring a new generation of undersized quarterbacks to dream well beyond the tape measure.
Entering Year 7, what Murray needs most is a playoff victory.
The NFC West is full of asterisks and question marks. Murray must ascend above Sam Darnold, Brock Purdy, and a compromised Matthew Stafford. He must suppress any uprising in San Francisco, a team with an astonishingly easy schedule, and the team most likely to go worst-to-first in the NFL.
If the Cardinals can win the division, they will capture the most gluttonous reward in sports.
Per NFL rules, all division winners host a playoff game, regardless of their overall record. In 2010, the 7-9 Seahawks used a raucous home-field advantage to eliminate an 11-win team from New Orleans. Winning the division could lead to an extended playoff run in Arizona, exactly what Murray needs to fill the hole in his resume.
When asked if the 2025 Cardinals were capable of making the playoffs, Murray refused to bite:
“One day at a time,” he said.
Murray’s final hurdle is obvious.
In the NFL, defenses tell a quarterback what to do. Murray must improve his decision-making ability in the pocket, especially when the fur is flying. He needs to play fast and slow down. He needs to make the right reads and the right throws at the right time. He needs to be great at being boring, which is the antithesis of the Kyler Murray experience.
Staying in the moment was a big theme of Murray’s press conference on Wednesday.
He said he feels no pressure, no anxiety and no stress over what he might face in New Orleans on Sunday. He repeatedly spoke of being “where your feet are.” While he still looks impossibly young for an NFL quarterback with six years of hard living, Murray seems as relaxed and confident as one might hope, especially with his current relationship with Marvin Harrison Jr.
“Honestly, night and day from when we drafted him until now,” Murray said. “I love where we’re at. Now, it’s just time to go execute.”
Since Day 1, the Cardinals’ new regime has invested heavily in Murray. They’ve attended a statue ceremony in Oklahoma, built up the trenches, drafted a big-name wide receiver and prioritized his comfort zone at every turn.
Now is the time that Murray flips the script and spins a new legend. Or time for all of us to face the cold, hard truth.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on 98.7 FM and the Arizona Sports app.
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Comments
5 Comments
Pretty sure iv read that same headline in years past.
I agree that I expect the Cardinals to make the playoffs this year ... and I expect Kyler Murray to look better to many than he has in the past due to the improved team around him ... but I'm mostly just impressed at the time you put into this comment. :)
Bickley is a notorious Kyler Murray hater. Not all of AZs woes are on Kyler, he’s had crap teams around him. In 2021 they limped into the playoffs cause multiple stars at WR/OL/RB ended up getting injured and he didn’t have weapons against the SB Champion Rams that year, who he had blew off the field when everyone was healthy earlier that year. Kingsbury had a gimmick offense the league caught up to. AZ then fired Kliff and they tore the roster down to the studs and totally rebuilt the team, they had the worst team in 2023 and they over achieved last year given the requisite talent they had.
And yet still Murray’s played at an MVP level in multiple seasons, he wins it in 2021 if he doesn’t lose multiple key offensive pieces in December to injury. He’s a multi time Pro Bowl QB And at his best is a top 3 QB as good as anyone, easily a top 10-12 in this league and I think he proves to be a top 5-7 QB this year. Regardless of what happens this year AZ would be beyond dumb to get rid of Murray, because he will go to a well run organization and instantly have success. Bickley has been a hater of K1 since day 1, Carson Palmer choked away far more games with turnovers including the NFCCG and Bickley was never nearly as derisive of Carson, I don’t know if it’s a race thing or what but Bickley tired takes are getting old. Unless AZ picks in the top 5 which they won’t be they’d be stupid to let Murray go as things can get far far worse.
This year I’d bet a mortgage payment that assuming Murray and his top playmakers stay healthy they’ll win this division and be a major factor contending in the NFC as this team can compete with anyone in the NFC. I think AZ has an elite top 5-7 offense w/ a top 3 rushing offense and top 10 defense giving Murray a defense he can lean on for the first time in years and K1 has a career year. It’s a run first offense so his stats won’t be super gaudy but I think he’s in MVP talks again and completes 70% of his passes for 4100-4250YDs 30-32TDs/8-10INTs with 700-800YDs rushing 6-8TDs as they’ve said KM will be running more this season . I’d love to win the west and then win the divisional round just 1 win to an NFCCG appearance but at the very least I think they make the wildcard. If they can win the division and win 1 game to make it to the NFCCG anything’s possible.