When Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury took the stage at the 2022 scouting combine to meet with the media on Tuesday, he undoubtedly knew that he would be grilled about quarterback Kyler Murray, and Murray’s future with the team. On Monday, Erik Burkhardt, Murray’s agent, released a statement in which he made it clear that his client believes in his team, but wants long-term stability to bring his best to the Valley of the Sun.
A statement from agent @ErikBurkhardt with regards to client #AZCardinals QB Kyler Murray pic.twitter.com/XjDxRVhISc
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 28, 2022
“Just a quick programming note – (GM) Steve Keim will be here at 3 p.m,” Kingsbury started. “I know he’s really anxious to talk to you guys, so any other tough ones, you can save for him.”
The media didn’t bite, and the questions came thick and fast. Kingsbury said that while he hadn’t talked with Murray since Burkhardt released that statement, he and Murray are in a good place, and “I just haven’t talked to him since yesterday.”
Kingsbury wasn’t aware that Burkhardt, who is also Kingsbury’s agent, was going to release that statement.
“No, we keep those things separate. Like I said, we know it’s a business and he’s doing his job… I love Kyler, I love Erik, and that’s not going to change.”
Kingsbury then reaffirmed his desire for Murray to be his guy.
“I think all of our long-term goal here is to have Kyler be our quarterback. He understands that. He understands my view of him and how I feel about him. Once again, I’m going to refer it back to the business side of things. That’s not something I deal with, but it’s all part of the business right now and things that we’ll continue to work through.”
Kingsbury also talked about how things need to improve going forward — both for the quarterback and for the head coach.
“I think just continue to take what the defense gives you,” Kingsbury said of his quarterback. “At times, he’ll want to make the big play, whether it’s with his feet or his arm. But when he’s finding his checkdown, when he’s taking what’s there – the underneath stuff – he’s really efficient and it helps our offense. It’s hard to play from third-and-7, third-and-9, but if you’re [at] third-and-5, you’ve got a fighting chance.”
As for his own adaptations, Kingsbury was forthright about his inability to adjust when receiver DeAndre Hopkins missed multiple games with an MCL injury. Hopkins’ late-season misses at times coincided with Murray’s own injury issues, so it was more than just Hopkins’ absence, but the on/off splits without Hopkins were truly alarming — the Cardinals dropped from 8.8 to 7.0 yards per attempt, from a 6.4% touchdown rate to 3.0%, and from 8.2 to 6.4 in average depth of target with Hopkins off the field.
“I think after doing some reflection, the biggest thing is when we lost Hop, I didn’t do a good job, schematically, of adjusting some things that could have taken some pressure off of Kyler, I think. You lose a piece like that, you’ve got to find a way to be more creative, I think, and I’ve got to be better at that. But I think we’ve improved each year, offensively. Obviously, didn’t like the way we finished [losing 34-11 to the Rams in the wild-card round], but we’ve got to continue to be creative and try to put Kyler in positions to be successful and surround him with talent that can make plays.”
Where it all goes from here, we don’t know, but this does bring some drama to the offseason.