Both Murray and Kingsbury downplayed the notion of any tension between them in their relationship.
Sunday morning, it was reported that the relationship between Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury and quarterback Kyler Murray was tense but that, over the two weeks Murray was out with a hamstring injury, things were hashed out and communicated.
Both Kingsbury and Murray deny that there is anything wrong with their relationship.
After the team’s 25-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, Kingsbury said, “we’re good,” regarding his relationship with Murray.
Murray took it further.
“There was no tension,” he said. “Between me and him though, we’re good.”
Based on what both say, any frustration is about how the season has gone and not an internal division between the two.
“This whole season has not gone the way anyone wanted or envisioned it to go,” Murray said.
“When you’re not winning obviously everybody’s going to be a little on edge,” Kingsbury said, and then praised Murray for his performance and his belief he will continue to play at a high level.
Kingsbury said the conversations between the two are about team improvement. “That’s it. We know we’re missing some pieces offensively, but we talk about how we can utilize what we have and what’s the best way to do that,” he said.
The season has not gone the way anyone had hoped. It’s good to hear that there aren’t problems between coach and quarterback.
Check out our studs and duds from Week 12’s home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Sitting at 4-8 on the season, the Arizona Cardinals will not be making the postseason and are in the beginning stages of major change.
While there were little to no hopes to begin with, the Cards needed to win this game to have an outside shot at a playoff birth. The remaining schedule is pretty light, so there was still a small chance.
Instead, the Cards choked away a game they were winning by 7 for most of the fourth quarter. Chargers QB Justin Herbert found Austin Ekeler for a touchdown late and then tight end Gerald Everett for the game-winning two-point conversion.
There were a couple of studs in the game for Arizona, but there were more duds.
The Arizona Cardinals get quarterback Kyler Murray back in the lineup on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers after a two-game absence. He was out with a hamstring injury.
That time off was “a blessing in disguise,” sources tell NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
According to Rapoport, the relationship between Murray and Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury has been “tense.”
During the two weeks Murray was out, the two have been trying to get things right between them.
“Before he was injured, things got a little tense between him and Kliff Kingsbury,” Rapoport reported. “My understanding is that during that time away, during that break, the two sat down, hashed out some differences, worked on their communication and came up with a plan going forward to get on the same page down the stretch.”
There have been in-game confrontations between Kingsbury and Murray. Both have played it off as two passionate competitors trying to win.
With Murray back in the lineup, we will see how things go between the two.
Rather than an increased fracture between the two, the fact that they both worked on getting things right is a positive sign for the present and future.
The Cardinals dismissed assistant coach Sean Kugler after an incident in Mexico City
The Arizona Cardinals were minus one offensive assistant coach Monday night when they were clobbered by the San Francisco 49ers, 38-10.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury told the Arizona Republic Tuesday that he fired running game coordinator and chief offensive line coach Sean Kugler after an incident Sunday night in Mexico City, where the game took place.
“We relieved him of his duties, and he was sent home Monday morning prior to the game,” Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury said the move is permanent, meaning Kugler is no longer an employee of the team. He was part of Kingsbury’s original staff with the Cardinals in 2019.
“It’s challenging anytime you make a staff change in that type of manner and I’m just going to leave it at that,” Kingsbury told The Republic.
… Kugler’s duties will now be shared by assistant offensive line coach Brian Natkin and tight ends coach Steve Heiden, who both handled the job during Monday’s game. Offensive assistant Mike Bercovici will temporarily replace Heiden as tight ends coach.
Unfortunately for Arizona, it’s lost its last two games to the contending Vikings and Seahawks, spiraling into an essentially hopeless 3-6 mark. That latter defeat to Seattle appears to have shown some potential friction between Hopkins and Kyler Murray.
In a new clip from Hard Knocks In Season, Hopkins is clearly frustrated over a play where he didn’t get the ball. And when Hopkins tries to bring up the result to Murray, the quarterback snaps back with some frustrations of his own. The video provides more context over a testy exchange we already witnessed between two players who should almost always be on the same page:
Here’s a taste. The sideline exchange between DHop and Kyler a lot juicier with audio. pic.twitter.com/IXseiKh2Fe
I don’t want to read into this heated argument too much, considering quarterbacks and receivers are likely working out their differences on play calls and throws much more often than we think. Plus, Hopkins has been targeted 32 times in his three games in 2022, putting him on a pace for roughly 181 targets. Over a full 17-game sample size, only the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill and Rams’ Cooper Kupp would be on pace to see more targets this season.
However, given all the controversy that’s bogged the Cardinals down since the summer and, more importantly, given their ongoing catastrophic season — I also think it’s fair to wonder whether there’s more to this Hopkins-Murray conversation than we think. Because I find it hard to imagine anyone in Arizona is happy to be three games under .500 in mid-November.
Even with the fellow struggling Rams next on the Cardinals’ docket, it’s hard to imagine they turn it around if Hopkins and Murray aren’t on the same page.
Kingsbury and McDaniels are powerless in the face of momentum. Their inability to change could lead to their firings this winter.
Trains are a great option if you need to haul a massive payload to a single destination. When you have to worry about sudden turns or changes in direction, however, they’re a lot less useful. Even stopping a train requires a tremendous amount of time and effort to slow its momentum.
And in an NFL landscape filled with teams that maneuver like fighter jets, Kliff Kingsbury and Josh McDaniels are stuck playing engineer.
Both are capable of handling their business as long as no contingencies arise. If the Cardinals or Raiders simply need to get to a preordained destination with limited resistance from their opponent, they’ll get there. But ask them to change direction and both Arizona and Las Vegas wind up scrambling.
Both have been able to build potent offensive machines and imposing leads on opponents. Neither has been able to adapt once the tide turns against their team. That can mean collapsing after building a 17-0 lead to start a game or an 8-1 record to start the season.
Turning is not an option for Kingsbury or McDaniels. If their target is right in front of them, hell yeah, they’ll get there in record time. If not, well, they’re just gonna hope their opponent is willing to meet them wherever their tracks end.
Even though McDaniels is just halfway through his first regular season with the Raiders, we’ve got years of data from both coaches to illustrate how incapable either coach is of turning things around. McDaniels couldn’t make the Broncos more than the sum of their parts, lost the locker room and lost seven of his last eight games before being fired in 2010. Kingsbury, on the other hand, has lost the magic touch that brought Arizona success early in the year before inevitable fades into oblivion.
Let’s look at how inability to change could leave both unemployed after the 2022 season.
To learn more about the enemy, we spoke with Cards Wire managing editor Jess Root.
The award-winning, paradigm-smashing 2022 Seahawks have a chance to send a division rival home early this week. If they beat the Cardinals on Sunday in Arizona, it will drop their NFC West foes’ record to 3-6 on the season – putting their chances of making the playoffs in the extremely-slim category. Make no mistake: this game is must-win territory for the Cardinals.
To learn more about the enemy, we spoke with Cards Wire managing editor Jess Root. Here are a few questions he answered about the status of his team.
Kliff Kingsbury didn’t say he was expecting a trade to happen before Tuesday’s deadline, but it wouldn’t surprise him if it happened.
The Arizona Cardinals already have made one move before the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, acquiring receiver Robbie Anderson from the Carolina Panthers for a pair of late-round draft picks.
Could they make more moves before the deadline?
While the team is not reported to be in any active trade talks, coach Kliff Kingsbury believes it is certainly an option.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” he told reporters Friday after practice. “There’s a lot of really good players out there and I’ll bet there’s a ton of movement over the next few days. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got in on something.”
Of course, he would not have said if the team were in trade talks or if there were a particular player they are targeting. He can’t do that. But based on the track record of general manager Steve Keim and his willingness to make trades, whether in the offseason or during the season, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Will a deal happen? That we won’t know until one happens or the deadline passes.
If a deal does occur, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.
Murray just had to tell Kingsbury how excited he was about new COD maps!
The Cardinals left their Thursday night matchup with the Saints with a nice 42-34 win, but it didn’t seem to be completely “clean” for all 60 minutes. Even with a heartbroken Andy Dalton on the other side, Arizona had its own quarterback-head coach strife to sort out.
Late in the first half, with the Cardinals down 14-6 and before the Arizona offense (and defense) would take off, Kyler Murray appeared to have some — how do I say this … “choice” words for his head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
A better way to say this is that Murray wasn’t happy, and he simply wanted Kingsbury to really calm down.
(Note: For you lip-readers out there, NSFW language in the video below.)
It’s a good thing the Cardinals would win because that does not look like a comfortable exchange between quarterback and head coach. Call it a hunch, but this might not be the last time we hear (or see) something between Murray and Kingsbury.
Robbie Anderson provides the deep ball threat the Cardinals badly need. It might not make a difference under Kliff Kingsbury.
The Arizona Cardinals receiving corps will look very different in Week 7’s matchup with the New Orleans Saints. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown will likely miss the game thanks to a foot injury that could cost him the rest of the season. His targets could be split between two players making their 2022 Arizona debuts: DeAndre Hopkins and Robbie Anderson.
Hopkins’ return from a six-game PED suspension was expected. Anderson’s arrival was not. The Panthers shipped their former 1,000-yard wideout west Monday after sending him to the locker room in the middle of the team’s 24-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Rather than release him and let him hit the open market, Carolina found a willing buyer in a Cardinals offense in dire need of playmaking talent at the cost of two late-round draft picks.
Carolina had shopped Robbie Anderson recently, and all parties appeared on the same page. But rather than have to release him after yesterday, the #Panthers were able to deal him to Arizona. https://t.co/jlarObdjJC
Anderson will join a 2-4 team beset by regression. Kyler Murray, fresh off a five-year, $230 million contract extension with $189.5 million guaranteed, has backslid mightily in his fourth season as a pro. He’s struggled to generate any kind of consistent, meaningful offense through the air thanks, in some part, to a receiving corps that’s been without two of his favorite targets from 2021’s breakthrough season — Hopkins and Christian Kirk.
Here’s a look at his numbers through the first six games of 2021, his 2021 season as a whole, and his first six games of 2022. They paint a pretty grim picture of decline that runs parallel to the Cardinals’ record over that span.
It’s reductive to blame that all on Hopkins’ absence over the back half of the 2021 season due to injury and the start of 2022 thanks to suspension, but it’s not entirely wrong. Murray is a very different quarterback without his All-Pro wideout serving as the rising tide by commanding double coverage and allowing his supporting cast to thrive. A.J. Green, for example, caught 67 percent of his targets last season with Hopkins in the lineup and just 51 percent when Hopkins sat.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury is hoping Anderson can be the beneficiary of that extra exposure, especially of Brown’s injury keeps him out for multiple games — and it appears it will. Anderson spent the past two seasons languishing alongside the league’s worst quarterbacks en route to his two least productive seasons in the NFL.
He’s caught just 48 percent of the passes thrown his way since 2021. His 5.3 yards per target in that span ranks dead last among 47 wide receivers with at least 100 targets. But these were the guys throwing him those passes:
via RBSDM.com and the author
Murray is flawed, but he’s significantly better than a quarterback stable whose *best* passer ranked 46th out of a possible 53 qualified players over the past two years.
It will be interesting to see how Kingsbury incorporates Anderson into his offense. The former Texas Tech head coach thrives when he can stretch the field vertically, but those throws have been limited without Hopkins on the field to lure deep safeties to his chunk of the field. Murray averaged a healthy 7.9 air yards per throw en route to 2021’s 6-0 start, but that number fell to 7.4 over the back half of the season and sits at just 6.8 yards downfield after Week 6 — seventh-lowest among starting QBs this fall.
Anderson is capable of taking the top off this offense and getting downfield in a hurry. Go routes and deep posts were pretty much his jam as a New York Jet, where his average target was at least 15 yards downfield in three of his four seasons.
As you’re probably well aware if you’ve watched even a modicum of football the past decade, it’s not like the Jets had surrounded him with quality quarterbacks either. Now he gets to work with Murray, whose most notable deep threat before Monday was a 34-year-old A.J. Green, who leads the team in target depth (10.5 yards downfield) but has 10 catches on 22 targets and just 56 receiving yards. Brown was the only other regular WR whose average throw went more than 5.3 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and now he may be done for the year.
Fortunately for Kingsbury, Anderson is more than just a burner. His most productive season came in 2020 when he teamed with Teddy Bridgewater to expand his route tree and do more work in the intermediate range. While his 9.8 yard target depth was the lowest of his career, his catch rate (69.9 percent), receptions (95), receiving yards (1,096) and first downs gained (49) all hit personal bests.
This is all very good news for Murray, who gets his WR1 back as well as a player capable of thriving in his wake — and that’s before we get to the recent rise of Rondale Moore. Moore’s ability to take short targets and turn them into big games makes him an important safety valve for an offense that’s twice been held without a touchdown in six games this season.
Hopkins-Anderson-Moore is a useful trio and Zach Ertz continues to produce at a reliable level for a tight end. The question now is how Kingsbury can fit this group together.
In-season adjustments traditionally have been Kingsbury’s blind spot. His teams were 13-3 before November 8 in 2020 and 2021 and just 6-12 afterward. There are plenty of jokes out there about how that coincides with the annual Call of Duty release and Murray’s love of video games, but the real culprit is an offense that spends all its skill points on Plan A and then scrambles when opponents find ways to stop it.
This will be Kingsbury’s biggest challenge and one on which his job likely depends. He earned a contract extension this offseason to keep him from heading into 2022 as a lame duck head coach. With Murray locked down through roughly 2027, however, it’s much easier to jettison a mediocre head coach than the highly-paid quarterback who’s foundering under his leadership. The Cardinals don’t have the early-season cushion they typically build in September-October; 2-4 is the worst start of the Kingsbury era, even worse than his 2019 debut that ended at 5-10-1.
Anderson isn’t a cure-all for everything bad about this offense — we haven’t even gotten into a rushing attack whose top two backs average less than 3.9 yards per carry — but he has the toolbox to make a few fixes along the way. It’s on Kingsbury to find a way to fit him in.
Logically, it seems like a solid move. Three years of watching the Cardinals fold in upon themselves like fresh laundry, on the other hand, suggests it probably won’t make a difference.
