When the Arizona Cardinals made Kyler Murray the 1st overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, they did so with hopes that the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback would arrive in Arizona and completely change the franchise for the better. Unfortunately, that’s not how things have unfolded.
Since 2019, the Cardinals have gone 40-59-1. Removing all of the games that Murray has missed due to injury, Arizona is 36-45-1. But in the six seasons that preceded Murray’s tenure, the Cardinals were 52-43-1. Yes, Arizona had fallen on tough times in the three seasons leading up to Murray’s arrival, but prior to that, Bruce Arians had turned the Cardinals into one of the best teams in the NFC. That’s a plateau that Arizona hasn’t reached in the Kyler Murray era.
As Kyler Murray enters his seventh season in Arizona, it’s fair to say that patience is wearing thin. The 28-year-old quarterback still has multiple years remaining on a five-year, $230 million contract extension he was given in 2022, but that doesn’t mean that Murray will remain in Arizona for the duration of that deal.
ESPN’s NFL insider Dan Graziano recently took a look at 12 different quarterback situations that will be impacted by the results of the 2025 season, and in his evaluation of the Cardinals, he outlined a scenario where this ends up being Kyler Murray’s last year as QB1 in Arizona.
“Arizona’s season completely collapses, people in charge get fired, and a new regime comes in and decides the best thing for the franchise is to move on at QB in the 2026 draft,” Graziano wrote on August 20. “Murray becomes a candidate to be released or traded, while one of the top QB prospects for 2026 lands in Arizona in Round 1.”
Could Kyler Murray’s Time in Arizona Be Coming to an End?
Publicly, the Cardinals have given no indication that they are looking to move on from Kyler Murray. There hasn’t been one ill-fated quarterback competition, or any sort of grumbling from players in the Cardinals locker room. The closest thing to “controversy” has been a clause in Murray’s 2022 contract which stipulated the amount of time that he needed to study the playbook without distraction of TV or video games. The clause was eventually removed.
For a moment, let’s assume that the scenario Dan Graziano outlined comes to fruition this season. If Arizona is in a position to grab a quarterback in what most scouts agree is a draft class rich with quarterbacks, wouldn’t Cards general manager Monti Ossenfort have to at least see what he could get for Kyler Murray? Wouldn’t at least one QB needy team kick the tires on what they would need to give up to acquire an under-30 signal-caller with this kind of pedigree?
Teams like the Colts, Steelers, Jets, Browns, Saints and Rams could all theoretically be in the mix for a new quarterback next season, whether that be because their quarterbacks at the outset of 2025 have retired — Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford — or because their stopgap quarterbacks didn’t pan out. It won’t take much for someone to talk themselves into Kyler Murray, because the flashes of brilliance have been there.
Murray is one of just eight quarterbacks to complete at least 67 percent of his passes since the 2019 NFL season. Only Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts have accumulated more rushing yards. He won the 2019 Rookie of the Year, and has been named one of the Top 100 players in the league by his peers three times.
There’s something here. The Cardinals just need to figure out if it’s worth hanging onto.
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