10 reasons why Kyler Murray is a darkhorse NFL MVP candidate

The buzz is not only coming from your neighbor, the overly optimistic Arizona Cardinals fan. It’s not reserved for only those in the Red Sea bubble.

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is receiving darkhorse consideration for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award nationally.

NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks, plus the ESPN duo of Marcus Spears and Mike Clay have gone on record making the bold prediction of the second-year quarterback winning MVP in 2020.

Oddsmakers in Vegas list him as a top-10 candidate to win, but according to Draft Kings, Murray was receiving 10% of the bets as of a week before Arizona opens the season against the San Francisco 49ers. That was more action than any other NFL player.

“I don’t really pay any mind to it. They got to put somebody in the talk. I got to go out and play well,” said Murray, who threw for 3,722 yards, tossed 20 touchdowns to 12 interceptions and completed 64% of his passes as a rookie starter.

The Cardinals have equipped the Kliff Kingsbury-schemed offense with more weapons for Murray to find success.

His learning curve after playing 16 games has slowed the game down. And just in terms of the leadership duties for a starting quarterback, Murray appears to be advanced. Add it up, and he has high expectations for himself regardless of the MVP chatter.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s on me to make the right decision with the ball,” Murray said Wednesday when asked about the weapons on offense he has available. “If we do that, I should be fine.”

Simple enough.

From reasons ranging from yet-to-be-proven to quite obvious, here are 10 reasons why Murray might have a chance to meet MVP-level expectations in Year 2, starting with the quarterback himself.

1. Kyler’s no longer ‘winging it’

Suffering a hamstring injury before the 2019 finale, Murray had already proved skeptics wrong. The first overall pick who broke stereotypes of what a quarterback should look like in a 5-foot-10 frame could have rested up for 2020.

The Cardinals, at 5-9-1, had no playoff seeding to fight for against the Los Angeles Rams.

But to Kingsbury, the importance of Murray playing through an injury was paramount. He wanted the rookie to complete a full season of live reps, and though Murray threw two picks in the game and couldn’t use his legs like he wanted, it was another opportunity to slow things down.

“I think (improvement came) just seeing the defense, seeing the field, recognizing what they were trying to do to me, us. Beginning of the year, (I was) kind of winging it,” he said. “Things were moving a lot faster than before. Toward the end of the season, I could dissect, diagnose things before they happened.”

2. Out of his shell

The 31-24 loss to Los Angeles also helped Murray build a cache in the locker room.

He’d already gained respect with his work ethic, but he came out of his shell, too. Being named captain for the 2020 season, it’s clear he is a ready franchise face with pull in the locker room.

“Having Kyler around and this being my first year here and just being around him, it’s contagious the way he plays and the will that he has to do whatever it takes to win,” said first-year Cardinal DeAndre Hopkins, noting Murray’s abilities as a reason he wanted to sign a contract extension with Arizona.

3. The alpha X receiver

Hopkins, you might know, is a good reason to expect an uptick in Murray’s production. The physical wideout with the hands that require triple-extra-large gloves is a four-time Pro Bowler, who, with the Houston Texans, produced despite being an easy target for opposing defenses to double-cover.

He can help Murray in the quick game to gain yards after catch or bail the quarterback out on extended plays. He’s a deep threat and someone who can win 50-50 balls with his catch radius and near-perfect hands.

4. Internal improvement

Let’s say 17-year pro Larry Fitzgerald doesn’t get any worse. The fight for who is the No. 2 receiver could be tight between the legend and third-year pro Christian Kirk, who likely would have led the Cardinals in receiving yards last year had he not missed three games due to a lingering ankle issue.

Kirk appeared on an ascent to become a legitimate No. 1 receiver.

Kingsbury notably said this offseason that Kirk has the potential to go “through the roof.” And with Hopkins around, Murray knows that outside presence will change the looks for the rest of the receivers.

“Last year … whenever we were 3-by-1, they single up one side and let the weakside safety play the three-receiver side,” Murray said. “That just crowds it up for those guys. Now when you got a guy like D-Hop at the X, you got to help. So having C-Kirk, having Larry, Dan, all the guys that we got — I think it makes C-Kirk that much more dangerous.”

Toss in sprinkles of Andy Isabella field-stretching packages, and there’s a lot for Murray to work with.

5. Big Dan

You’ll notice in the quote above that Murray mentioned “Dan” before a few other offensive weapons. That would refer to tight end Dan Arnold, a former track athlete at University of Wisconsin Platteville who will join physical starter Maxx Williams in the tight end deployments.

Make no mistake about his role: Arnold is there to “Moss people,” as Kingsbury likes to say.

It matters that Murray found a connection with Arnold late last year after the Cardinals plucked the tight end off the waiver wire. Arnold caught six balls for 102 yards and two scores in three games to end 2019.

6. Red zone focus

Remember, for all the improvements Arizona’s offense made from 2018 to 2019 — going dead last to average — it still wasn’t good in the red zone. The Cardinals ranked fourth-to-last by converting 45% of the time.

The Tennessee Titans led the NFL in the red zone last season by scoring touchdowns 77% of the time.

“That’s definitely been a rallying cry for our offensive unit,” Kingsbury said.

7. Offensive line continuity

Right tackle Kelvin Beachum usurps 2019 starter Justin Murray, who is the backup at right guard and right tackle. Center Mason Cole slides into the starting unit to bring more athleticism than predecessor A.Q. Shipley.

Otherwise, the offensive line is back.

Thanks to Kyler Murray’s purchase of a set of scooters for the big men last Christmas, the aptly-named Wild Hogs of D.J. Humphries, Justin Pugh, J.R. Sweezy and Cole are back after helping Arizona to average a franchise record 5.03 yards per rush last season.

Their lofty goal is to improve on it.

They also want to cut down on Murray’s 48 sacks taken a year ago. Getting the ball out quicker will help Murray. Him having a better feel for each situation and what his linemen are doing could help reduce sacks on first and second downs, one of the priorities heading into 2020.

Murray said he hopes to cut the sack number in half.

8. Drake knows why

Running back Kenyan Drake looked good in a half-season with Arizona, averaging 5.2 yards per pop in 2019.

With an offseason of Zoom calls behind him, he knows the “why” behind principles of the offense.

He understands pre-snap keys that will put him in better positions to get the ball in space. If it’s not about the offense line clearing running lanes for him, then that knowledge of the offense should help him sit down in the open spaces of the field and add something in the passing game.

“He takes a lot of pride in that aspect, we talk about it,” Kingsbury said. “I think that was an area this offseason when he was training on his own he wanted to get better at. Any way we can get him the ball in space is what we’re going to try to do. He’s hard to tackle, one-on-one space.”

9. It just might be faster

Kingsbury, trying hard as ever to keep things secretive, repeatedly said the pace of practices in camp was about getting players in shape after an offseason away from the team facility.

Don’t be surprised if there’s carry-over into the actual regular season offense.

“Going against that offense is obviously, it’s tough,” linebacker Jordan Hicks said. “Especially for a linebacker, when they’re going super fast, no huddle, going from 12 personnel to 10 personnel, complete chaos in practice.”

Kingsbury acknowledged his quarterback’s knowledge of the offense this year makes it possible to go at warp speed. But again, the speed was strictly about getting in shape.

“That’s what it comes down to is (Murray’s) comfort level, and I’ve said all along, we’re trying to get guys in shape by overdoing it,” he said. “Our defensive staff understands that, the defensive personnel understand that. More than anything, we’re going to overdo it, we’re going to get guys in shape, we’ve got a lot of making up in a short time so we’re going to run a lot of plays and try to get a lot of things executed. Kyler’s done a nice job handling it and we’re hoping the game will slow down for both sides because of the tempo.”

But will it speed up for opponents?

10. Covering Kyler

Let’s wrap it with the man operating the offense.

Some liken Murray’s rushing abilities to having an extra offensive lineman, as a spy will essentially be “blocked” by mirroring the quarterback.

That was already an element to the Cardinals, but the designed rushing attack was used carefully by Kingsbury as he tried to keep his franchise piece healthy in a chaotic rookie year. The coach will tread lightly again, but with the quarterback adding some weight this offseason, don’t expect the Cardinals to not take advantage of his legs.

“I think he’s a weapon that can be utilized more, there’s no question,” Kingsbury said. “There’s that fine line of walking it because we know how talented his is and we know what he means to this team. We want to limit his exposure to getting hit as much as possible.”

How do they limit it?

The Cardinals carried three quarterbacks into the season because three quarterbacks “earned it,” according to Kingsbury.

Maybe the coronavirus pandemic pushed them to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

Or maybe the third quarterback, Chris Streveler, is here for a different reason. He comes out of the CFL, where he wasn’t even the full-time Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting quarterback. Used in the “wedge package,” he weighs in at 216 pounds but, according to Kingsbury, has 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed.

Comparisons have tagged him to Saints backup quarterback and do-it-all man Taysom Hill. While that might be a stretch, Steveler did make a catch in the CFL championship game.

It would sure be questionable to pull Murray off the field if he’s an MVP candidate. But if Arizona does have a special package in mind for Streveler, using him on goal line option plays could be a fun twist to help that red zone percentage while keeping Murray out of harm’s way.

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