Insider expands on Cardinals' 'excitement' about Kyler Murray

Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing previously touched upon how quarterback Kyler Murray had impressed individuals within the organization during Murray's first healthy offseason working with Petzing and head coach Jonathan Gannon.

For a piece published Sunday night, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated expanded on Arizona's confidence in Murray heading into the upcoming season.

"There’s a ton of excitement on where Kyler Murray is going into his sixth season, and second under the direction of Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon," Breer explained. "Whether perception matched reality or not, the noise around Murray before Gannon and his staff arrived here 18 months ago wasn’t good. And there’s a reason you haven’t heard much of that since."

Shortly after Murray went down with a serious knee injury in December 2022, an anonymous veteran player with the Cardinals at that time said that "it was like they created a monster" when the organization signed the signal-caller to a five-year contract extension reportedly worth $230.5M with $160M guaranteed two summers ago.

It was then reported before Petzing and Gannon joined the Cardinals in February 2023 that some head-coaching candidates didn't "want to take the job knowing they’ll be tied to the hip of Murray for the next four seasons."

More recently, former NFL executive and current ESPN personality Mike Tannenbaum suggested in March that Arizona could use the fourth overall pick of this year's draft to land Murray's eventual replacement. The Cardinals instead selected Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. with choice No. 4.

"Murray’s been a model teammate—a constant presence in the offseason program, and organizing player trips for work (to Los Angeles to throw this summer) and pleasure (to Oklahoma City for a Mavericks-Thunder playoff game)—and worker under the new regime," Breer added.

Murray returned to the lineup from his knee injury last November and ultimately went 3-5 across eight starts. He completed 65.7 percent of 268 passes for 1,799 yards with 10 touchdowns and five interceptions to go along with 244 yards and three scores on 44 rushing attempts.

"He’s full steam ahead in his second year in OC Drew Petzing’s offense, and he has a better group around him, and this should be fun to watch," Breer said about Murray.

As of late Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Murray tied for seventh (with two others) among the betting favorites at +2500 odds to win the Comeback Player of the Year Award for the 2024 season.