NFL insider links Minnesota Vikings to Kyler Murray, and it makes both complete sense and a major stretch

Kyler Murray would be both a great and terrible fit for the Minnesota Vikings at the same time.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Oct 30, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) passes against the Minnesota Vikings in the third quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The quarterback situation for the Minnesota Vikings continues to be the priority of the offseason.

Monday morning brought ESPN’s Bill Barnwell presenting a trade idea where the Vikings acquire San Francisco 49ers quarterback Mac Jones, and the package was atrocious for the purple and gold. The reality is there aren’t enough great options at quarterback available on the open market.

One of those could be Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. With a new coaching staff coming in, they may choose to move on from the often-injured quarterback instead of paying him a massive salary of nearly $42 million with a bigger salary cap hit of $52.66 million.

The big thing with the future of Murray is what the Cardinals choose to do with him. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated believes the Cardinals could cut Murray, and he said so while making an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

“Kyler’s got $36.8 million guaranteed this year, and then another $19.5 million guaranteed next year [vests on March 15th]. So that complicates trading for him, that complicates cutting him,” said Breer. “I think you see the way that that splits up, and I think it probably makes it more likely that Arizona just flat out has to move off of him and cut him and let him go to the market, and I think he will find a place that will view him as that sort of reclamation project. Maybe it’s Minnesota, maybe it’s the [New York] Jets we’ll see.”

The Vikings are an interesting spot for a reclamation project quarterback, and they will continue being linked to them with the success of Sam Darnold, not to mention the work they did to rehab the image of Daniel Jones, both of which Breer mentioned later in the interview.

“I think what we have to do with both these guys, with both Tua [Tagovialoa] and Kyler, is just consider them through the [Sam] Darnold, Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith lens, right? Like, does somebody look at these guys and say, ‘Yeah, I can get more out of him?’ You know, who did a really good job of that the last couple of years was the Minnesota Vikings,” Breer continued. “The Minnesota Vikings brought in Sam Donald, got a great year out of him. Brought in Daniel Jones, sort of revived his stock. Just having him there as a backup gave him a little bit of a chance to reset at the end of the 2024 season. They tried to bring each of each one of them back as insurance against J.J. McCarthy. When I look at Kyler, it would be a landing spot like that right now. Again, what complicates it is the contract.”

The idea of what Murray can be is impressive, but how good is he in actuality? That’s the big question surrounding the first overall pick. He has immense arm talent, but is often injured and is 5-10, making things very complicated with his projection. Pair that with his biggest strength being throwing outside the numbers in an Air Raid-type system, and not wanting to throw much over the middle, which is what head coach Kevin O’Connell wants to do.

If Murray is available on the open market, his value will be fascinating to watch play out, with teams like the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers all needing quarterbacks in a big way.

The idea of Murray is fascinating in Minnesota, but will it happen? We have a few weeks before we know for sure.

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