Cardinals’ Jonathan Gannon: Kyler Murray’s ‘best football is ahead of him’

There was a clear bump in production when Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray made his midseason return from a torn ACL.

Even with tweaks to his footwork and picking up a new offensive approach under a new regime, the quarterback was able to knock off the rust and prove his 2022 knee injury was behind him.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon believes the sky is the limit for Murray with a full offseason centered around football more than rehab.

“We changed his stance on how he took the snap and he took to it,” Gannon told reporters at the owners’ meetings in Florida on Tuesday. “He understands the ‘why’ behind it and he likes it now, but now he’s going to bank all those reps in the spring.

“His best football is ahead of him, which is interesting to say because he’s played at such a high level. I really think he’s going to keep (improving).”

Murray posted a 3-5 record last season behind 1,799 yards and 10 touchdowns to five interceptions on 65.6% passing. He chipped in another 244 yards and three scores on 44 carries.

But it was the final four-game stretch for Murray and the rest of the offense that left Gannon and Cardinals fans excited for what’s ahead.

Completing 70.3% of his throws for 935 yards and seven touchdowns to three picks, Murray played a big part in a strong offensive finish for an Arizona team that paced the league in total offense (414.3 yards per game) across the final four weeks of the season. The run game also stepped it up a notch, averaging an impressive 188.5 yards per game on the ground to go along with four touchdowns during that span.

That kind of finish may not have yielded more wins than losses, but it did inject a lot more confidence in Murray’s ability to lead the new-look offense into the future, especially given where the quarterback was coming from.

That being said, there’s still plenty of work to be done and tweaks to be made this upcoming offseason.

Gannon couldn’t be more amped.

“That’s why I’m super excited about spring and getting to go through spring and then training camp with him because there are some things that we want to explore that we think that he can handle,” the head coach said. “There are some things that he brought up that he wants some things added that he likes and that he’s comfortable with.

“That’s always a coach and player thing, which I love, and I just think that him going through spring is really going to help his development within our system with him as a player.”

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