Tag: Kyler Murray

Kyler Murray was in top 10 for Comeback Player of the Year

Murray was 10th in Comeback Player of the Year voting after coming in ninth in 2023.

The NFL announced its biggest player awards Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony. The Comeback Player of the Year was Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the overwhelming winner. He received 31 of the 50 first-place votes, earning a total of 370 points. Running back J.K. Dobbins came in second with 195 points.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray also received votes. He finished 10th in voting with 21 points, receiving one second-place vote, two third-place votes, fourth fourth-place votes and a pair of fifth-place votes.

Murray played a full season and led the Cardinals to eight wins after coming back in 2023 from his ACL tear. He passed for 3,851 yards and 21 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in 2024, and he rushed for 572 yards and five scores.

Last year, he finished ninth in Comeback Player of the Year voting.

Coming off a healthy season in which he played pretty well, we should expect him to get exactly zero votes next year.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Fox Sports commentator suggests Steelers trade for Cardinals QB Kyler Murray

A Fox Sports commentator believes the Steelers would trade for Kyler Murray, but is this a realistic move for Pittsburgh?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are no strangers to massive wide receiver trade rumors over the past several years, with speculation surrounding WRs Brandon Aiyuk, Davante Adams, D.K. Metcalf, and Cooper Kupp, just to name a few.

However, one Fox Sports commentator known for his outlandish hot takes, Nick Wright, has boldly declared that the Pittsburgh Steelers should target another position—quarterback.

Speaking with Phoenix Sports, Wright was asked how he would handle the Cardinals-Kyler Murray situation heading into 2025:

“I would call Pittsburgh and be like, ‘You want to give me a couple first-round picks?’ and then we can reboot it [trading Murray to Pittsburgh].”

As if the idea of the Steelers trading away two firsts for a struggling QB wasn’t enough, Wright continued to throw more gas on the fire:

“Kyler’s in a spot where he’s paid like a star, and he’s not quite a star. Pittsburgh would probably do it because they just need someone that’s not a bridge quarterback.”

If the Steelers are searching for something more than a bridge QB, the team should ultimately re-sign Justin Fields—not trade their future away for an unproven, injury-prone quarterback.

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2025 Cardinals offseason roster profile: QB Kyler Murray

A look at Kyler Murray, what he did in 2024, his contract status and his outlook on the team for 2025.

The Arizona Cardinals are in offseason mode and we are still weeks away from free agency and months from the NFL draft. Over the next little while, we will take a look at each player on the roster or signed to a reserve deal and break down where they stand with the team.

We will look at their 2024 season, their contract status and what their status is for the coming offseason and 2025 season.

We begin with quarterback Kyler Murray.

2024 Kyler Murray stats, season

Murray was healthy all season and was the unquestioned starting quarterback for the Cardinals.

He started 17 games and completed 68.8% of his passes for 3,851 yards, 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also rushed for 572 yards and five touchdowns, averaging a career-high 7.3 yards per attempt. He was sacked 30 times.

He played really well in stretches and other times was fairly average. He threw eight of his 11 interceptions over the final seven games of the season.

2025 contract status

Murray is under contract through 2028. He is due $18 million in fully guaranteed salary and a roster bonus of $11.9 million, as well as a workout bonus of more than $1.85 million and per-game roster bonuses up to $850,000. He will count nearly $43.3 million against the cap.

Outlook for 2025

Head coach Jonathan Gannon has made it very clear. Murray is the team’s starting quarterback moving forward. While some outside the organization have begun wondering whether the Cardinals should move on, the team still believes in him and his contract also makes it difficult to move on as well.

The Cardinals will go as far are Murray can take them.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

 

Who was the Cardinals’ comeback player of the year in 2024?

The Cards Wire writers make their picks for the Cardinals’ comeback player of the year for 2024. They have differing picks.

The Arizona Cardinals are in their offseason and looking ahead to 2025.

But while we are in the offseason, it is time to look back at the 2024 season and give some recognitions for player performances.

On the podcast, we discussed player awards and superlatives. Now we will put our picks in written form.

We continue with the team’s comeback player of the year for 2024.

Who was the Cardinals’ comeback player of the year? Howard Balzer and I give our picks.

Jess Root: DL L.J. Collier

I could go with linebacker Kyzir White here, but my choice is Collier because he played in part of only one game in 2023 after what looked like a promising offseason. He came on a little slowly but finished the season with a career-high 3.5 sacks and was regularly disruptive over the second half of the season.

Howard Balzer: QB Kyler Murray

Yes, it’s true that 2023 could be considered Murray’s “comeback” year. However, playing a half season after rehabbing a torn ACL and learning a new offense was only the beginning of the comeback.

The 2024 season was the true comeback and while there surely were some spotty performances within games, most overlooked is that Murray started and played all 17 games, making it the first of his six seasons in which there weren’t any injury issues during the year.

Overall, his 68.8 percent completion percentage was seventh in the NFL, his 3,851 yards ranked 11th and his 21 touchdown passes tied for 13th. Most notably, Justin Herbert had 23, Jayden Daniels and Jordan Love 25 and Patrick Mahomes 26.

Murray’s 572 yards rushing was fourth among NFL quarterbacks and his five TDs was in between Lamar Jackson’s four and Daniels’ six.

He and the offense have to be more consistent on third down and the fourth quarter, and if they do that and win more games than this year’s eight, it’s likely he will be the team MVP in 2025.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon says Kyler Murray isn’t the problem

“He is a top-level franchise quarterback, and he’s played like that. He’s shown that,” Gannon said this week.

The Arizona Cardinals finished the season 8-9 in 2024 after a four-win 2023 season. It was an improvement but also a disappointment because they went 2-5 after their bye week and, heading into the season finale on Sunday, quarterback Kyler Murray threw eight interceptions in the six games coming out of the bye.

That has led to fan criticism and concern about whether he should be the team’s quarterback moving forward.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon doesn’t have any doubts.

“He is a top-level franchise quarterback, and he’s played like that. He’s shown that,” Gannon said in his end-of-season press conference on Monday.  “He was in there talking to me today. We were going through some things, and I think the best teams win. We have to make sure we have the best team, and he understands how he fits into that.”

He elaborated further.

“He was in my office for a long time,” Gannon said of Murray. “He wants some plays back. So do I. We all do. You start looking around, you list the playoff teams and the quarterbacks of the playoff teams, I told him and I believe this: what is the common denominator of those quarterbacks in the playoffs right now? You could list all these different things. I said, ‘I’ll make it easy on you, it’s good teams.’ It’s what it is. Good quarterbacks are on good teams. We have to do everything that we can to support him and put a good team around him, then he has to play to his level consistently, which I know he can do.”

Gannon is saying the team was not quite good enough around Murray this past year.

They had good production in the run game. They had big numbers from tight end Trey McBride. The offensive line protected well. The defense was inconsistent and the play from receivers was also inconsistent.

While many believe Murray is the problem, Gannon does not agree. He has all the confidence that Murray is the quarterback to be able to take the Cardinals to the heights they hope to reach.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Cardinals WR Greg Dortch dusted the 49ers in the desert

Arizona Cardinals WR Greg Dortch tallied in a few explosive plays to help the team defeat the San Francisco 49ers 47-24 in Week 18.

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Greg Dortch tallied in a few explosive plays to help the team defeat the San Francisco 49ers 47-24 in Week 18. Dortch converted each of his four targets on the afternoon into productive plays, signaling to head coach Jonathan Gannon that he may be a force to reckon with moving ahead.

Dortch played all 17 games for the Cardinals in 2024 but didn’t have his usage maximized by offensive coordinator Drew Petzing. With the Cardinals opting for a higher volume of 12 and 13 personnel packages on offense, Dortch, who sat at No. 3 on the wide receiver depth chart for most of the season, didn’t see tons of opportunity come his way.

However, with running back James Conner inactive in Week 18, the Cardinals opted for a different approach on offense which featured more underneath throws and intermediate opportunities for Dortch to work in the open field.

Dortch finished the game with two touchdown receptions including an epic 23-yard thriller that ignited State Farm Stadium in the first quarter. After a rough ending to the season, Dortch and the Cardinals have to be pleased with their ability to finish the season on a good note.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Kyler Murray, Zaven Collins shooting to hit contract incentives against the 49ers

Kyler Murray has a $750K salary escalator and Zaven Collins has a $300K bonus they could earn in Week 18.

Kyler Murray’s salary is $37 million this season, but the Arizona Cardinals quarterback has a chance to add to that with a solid rushing performance in Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Murray’s contract includes a salary escalator each season of $750,000 if he runs for at least 600 yards and scores six rushing touchdowns.

In the first 16 games, Murray has rushed for 550 yards and reached the end zone five times. So, gaining 50 yards Sunday and scoring one rushing touchdown would add $750,000 to his $18 million guaranteed salary for 2025 and increase his salary-cap charge to over $44 million.

Other compensation Murray will receive next year is a guaranteed $11.9 million roster bonus, $1,857,500 offseason workout bonus and a maximum $850,000 roster bonus ($50,000 per game). He has the same per-game roster bonus this year, but the workout bonus for 2025 increases from the $1 million it was in 2023 and 2024.

Murray isn’t the only Cardinals player hoping to put more money in his pocket Sunday.

Outside linebacker Zaven Collins has 4.0 sacks and getting at least one against the 49ers would net him a $300,000 incentive.

Of course, what Murray and Collins have on the line is peanuts compared to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. He can earn non-guaranteed salary escalators worth almost half his $12.7 million salary this season if three things happen in the team’s game against the Rams.

  • A victory would be the 10th of the season for the Seahawks and that would be worth $2 million for Smith.
  • Currently with 4,097 yards, if he passes for at least 185 yards, that would be another $2 million. The significance of passing for 4,282 yards is that was his career high in 2022.
  • Finally, Smith would make another $2 million if his completion percentage ends up being 69.7. It currently is 70.2.

If he hits all three levels, Smith would have another $6 million added to his 2025 salary.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Steelers are current trade favorites to acquire Cardinals superstar QB

Betting odds suggest Kyler Murray could join the Steelers in 2025, but is it realistic or just another sports betting narrative?

Oh, what a difference a season makes. As Steelers fans, analysts, and former players scramble to predict which of the two starting-caliber quarterbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers—Justin Fields and Russell Wilson—will return to the team in 2025, betting odds are painting a new Steelers QB scenario.

Arizona Cardinals superstar QB Kyler Murray has been the subject of recent trade rumors, and Bovada—a popular sports betting website—gives the Pittsburgh Steelers the best odds to acquire him if 2024 was his last season in Arizona.

While the Cardinals’ odds of retaining Murray sit at -500, the Black and Gold currently have +800 odds of acquiring the QB, followed by the Las Vegas Raiders with +900, the New York Giants with +1400, and the Cleveland Browns with +1400.

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Kyler Murray’s 2024 stats were terrible, to say the least, with only 19 passing TDs and a whopping 11 interceptions. He has also struggled with injuries as of late, missing 18 games since 2021.

Should fans hop onto the ‘Murray to Pittsburgh’ bandwagon, or is this another example of sports betting sites creating false narratives?

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Can Kyler Murray be trusted late in games?

Jess Root and Seth Cox talk Cardinals-Rams and Kyler Murray in the latest show of the podcast.

The Arizona Cardinals lost on Saturday 13-9 to the Los Angeles Rams as quarterback Kyler Murray threw two fourth-quarter interceptions. They had nearly 400 yards of offense and scored only nine points. They held the Rams to 13 points and 257 yards and still lost.

Cohost Seth Cox and I reacted to the loss in this new episode of the podcast.

And with all the talk of Murray, his play and especially his play late in games, we pose the question — can he be trusted? We look at his late-game performances.

Finally, we discuss the Cardinals’ defensive performance and what we want to see in the season finale against the 49ers.

Enjoy the show!

Enjoy the show with the embedded player above or by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss a show. Make sure as well to give it a five-star rating!

Times and topics:

(1:00) Reactions to the Cardinals’ loss to the Rams

(17:52) Can we trust Kyler Murray?

(39:09) The defense and what we want to see vs. the 49ers