A healthy, happy Kyler Murray is cause for optimism

Offseason workouts are a good place to find optimism. Nobody has played a game. Injuries have not decimated the depth chart. Deficiencies have not been exposed.

When Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray spoke to local media for the first time since the 2023 season finale, however, the optimism felt more meaningful, more measured, more warranted. 

It felt like Murray was in a headspace to realize the tantalizing potential we saw from him early in his career.

“Am I excited?” he said Wednesday at the Cardinals training facility in Tempe. “Hell, yeah, I’m excited! Just to be healthy again is a blessing. And then to have the support of your head coach and everybody around you? Yes, yes, for sure. I just believe in what we can do.”

Murray has endured a wild ride in his five NFL seasons. In 2019, he won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. In 2021, he had the Cardinals off to a 7-0 start before injuries ravaged the team. In 2022, there was a contract dispute, questions about his study habits and a torn ACL that sidelined him for the end of one 4-13 season and the first nine games of a second consecutive 4-13 season. 

He has endured fan criticism. He has endured media criticism. He has endured Kliff Kingsbury’s simplistic offense and he has endured a regime change. 

To enter a season without any of that baggage hanging over his shoulders had Murray feeling light in spirit on Wednesday.

“It has felt like one of the best offseasons I’ve had in a long time,” he said. “Obviously, last year [I was] on the side, working on my body every day, having to watch, having to be in meetings and not really being able to get a feel for anything. It just makes a difference when I’m out there and we’re all getting better together; not only on the field, but off the field.”

What the Cardinals might accomplish with a healthy, happy Murray at the helm is still unknown, but it’s instructive to remember just how narrow the margins are in a league where the majority of games are decided by one score. It’s important to remember the offseason additions to the offense, including No. 4 overall pick Marvin Harrison Jr..

“I fully expect our offense to be top of the league.”

Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray expects Marvin Harrison Jr. to be a game changer that takes the offense “to another level.” pic.twitter.com/2nPe4dVOmn

— PHNX Cardinals (@PHNX_Cardinals) June 5, 2024

It’s important to remember that Murray has matured, in mind and in body. It’s important to remember the relationship that he is building with second-year coach Jonathan Gannon.

“It’s my first time so the only dynamic I know is the one that we have right now,” Gannon said. “The communication between us has accelerated our understanding of what we’re both trying to get done; what the team’s trying to get done.

“I joke about [him being] my best friend. He’s not my best friend, but I mean, we have a good common ground of what everybody in this building is trying to get done.”

Gannon didn’t know what to expect from Murray when he arrived. He had coached the defensive side of the ball for his entire career as an NFL assistant with five teams. That said, he always leaned on quarterbacks for insight.

“I’ve always been like this from a defensive standpoint,” he said. “The first guy I ask is a quarterback because the game’s played through the quarterback so I always want to know as a defensive guy: What’s in his mind? What’s he thinking? Is this hard? Is this not hard?”

Murray said the two clicked from the moment Gannon was walking out of his job interview while Murray was working out in the training facility.

“I chopped it up with him for like three minutes,” Murray said. “I could tell by the vibe he really loves the game of football and he understands how the game is. You can just tell with somebody, their intentions, how much it means to him.”

Even though he missed about half of Gannon’s first season in Arizona, Murray still feels miles ahead of where he was last season. He compared the feeling to his senior season at Oklahoma when he won the Heisman Trophy. 

“I feel just really locked into what we’re doing,” he said. “For me, it’s confidence and understanding where to go with the ball no matter what they’re doing because I’ve been in the system a year. And when you feel like that, man, the sky’s the limit. 

“I have played QB my whole life but when you’re at that point, I really can’t explain it to y’all, but it’s a good feeling. At that point, it’s just going out there and executing, building the trust, building the rapport with the receivers and obviously, the O-line and everything like that.”

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Murray said he is still managing his rebuilt knee, but at nothing close to the level he had to last season.

“It’s not as extensive as it was, but that’s something I’ve got to stay on,” he said before recapping last season’s eight-game audition. “There were some games where I was sore, there were some games where my flexion was maybe not as loose as it was the week before. It was definitely a battle.

“That’s something I’ve experienced now so I can speak on it. I didn’t know what it was gonna be like going into it. But there was a lot of good days, a lot of tough days.”

Since reporting to OTAs, the days have mostly been good ones.

“There’s definitely a juice around this team, a camaraderie about this team,” he said. “Since I got here, I was used to playing with a lot of older guys. This is the first time I feel like I’m kind of the older guy. There’s no knock on playing with older guys, but when you’re playing with guys around your age, it’s easier to gel or do things like that. I think all that matters. I don’t think people take into account how much it does matter. We can kind of grow together.

“It’s kind of lost in this league. In college, you’re around those dudes every day and you’re hanging out. When you get to the league, you’ve got guys that have families and stuff like that, but I feel like that’s controllable. I think it’s something that if you put the effort into it, you can still kind of have that feeling. I know we were tight last year. I feel like this team is even more. There’s been a lot of new guys, but the new guys have made an effort to really embrace the culture; embrace this team.”

In what Murray called “the natural maturation of life,” he has seen just about everything that NFL life can throw his way, producing a level of wisdom that can, in turn, produce results.

“I [always] say, ‘Do you know? Or do you know, know?'” Gannon said. “From the quarterback perspective, when [offensive coordinator] Drew Petzing calls a play, it’s not [about] everything that he has to handle before the ball is snapped and after the ball is snapped? [It’s] the reasons why. Why is he calling that?

“He’s really the guy that makes it go so if he understands the why behind everything that we’re doing, I just think it makes us operate a little more efficiently.”

Top photo via Getty Images

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