Arizona Cardinals send blunt message to former Oklahoma Sooners Heisman winner and number-one overall pick
The Arizona Cardinals officially benched quarterback Kyler Murray in favor of Jacoby Brissett
In a move that felt like it had been brewing for awhile, former Oklahoma Sooners superstar and current Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray has been seemingly benched as the starter for the Cardinals. Jacoby Brissett will now take over as Arizona’s starting quarterback, and could potentially stay in that role for the rest of the season.
It had been the elephant in the room for the Arizona Cardinals for the last few weeks, and it finally came to a head this week. The offense simply looked cleaner with Brissett in charge, and several stars like Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr have enjoyed some of the best games of their careers with Brissett under center instead of Murray.
With a lingering foot injury that has marred most of Murray’s season, it seems like his time with the Cardinals is close to over.
Kyler Murray with the Cardinals
- Drafted first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft
- Guided Arizona to first playoff bit since 2015 in 2021
- Has 20,460 career passing yards and 121 career passing touchdowns on top of 3,193 rushing yards and 32 rushing touchdowns
Is Kyler Cooked?
In 2018, Murray razzled and dazzled his way to winning the Heisman Trophy, amassing one of the single greatest seasons in college football history and leading the Sooners to another bid in the College Football Playoffs. He was the most electrifying playmaker in college football, and he turned that into the number-one overall pick, cementing Oklahoma as the premier NFL quarterback pipeline.
Fast forward here now seven years later, and things have fallen off for Kyler. After leading the Cardinals to the playoffs in 2021, the train has slipped off the tracks. His style of play proved to be unsustainable as defenses grew to adjust, and injuries have sapped a lot of his once elite athleticism. His arm velocity has dipped, posting one of the lowest average ball speeds in the league last season (only ahead of just Tua Tagovailoa), and a torn ACL sapped a lot of his elite mobility. There’s a reason why Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon felt the need to start Brissett over Murray, even if he was healthy
Now for Arizona, the Cardinals are once again going through quarterback purgatory, and their future under center is murky. Do they try and make a bid for a veteran, or should they go back to the well of trying to hit on a rookie quarterback in a fairly good quarterback class this offseason?
For the Sooners, it’s an unfortunate outcome for a player who brought so many magical moments and memories for fans in one of the best seasons in Oklahoma history. His run after the Texas game was one of the single greatest stretches of play from any Oklahoma player, and it’s what cemented his place in history.
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