Kyler Murray had half a season to show the Arizona Cardinals he was still the quarterback of the franchise's future. And it looks like he did. During his weekly Burns & Gambo appearance, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was definitive about it.

"There's no doubt. No. 1 is our franchise quarterback, that's who I love," Gannon said. "You know I'm a Kyler guy now."

The situation was always going to matter. When Gannon arrived in Arizona, the quarterback was recovering from an ACL injury. Murray returned to action only on November 12, and has played seven games since. His surroundings are not great, and he still has played at a lower than ideal level.

Through seven games, Murray has nine touchdowns and five interceptions, with an 86.8 passer rating.

But the situation obviously matters. When the season started, the Cardinals were favored to have two top picks — their own and the Houston Texans' one. But now, they are projected to have the fourth and the 17th pick. And while this is premium draft capital, it might not be enough to get one of the top two prospects, Caleb Williams and Drake Maye.

"Being here for a year with him now, I'm more convicted than when I got here," Gannon added. "There's no doubt he was a huge part of why we won that (Philadelphia Eagles) game. I thought he lit it up, I thought he was lights out. At the end of the game, that was kind of, my expectation for him, is if you've got the ball in your hands, the team knows we have a chance to win the game. And that's what he did."

The big question around Kyler Murray with the Cardinals is his contract. Last year, he signed a five-year, $230 million extension. He has manageable earnings for a quarterback, but it's still a huge cap hit. Next year, for example, he's slated to make $38.85 million, but his cap hit goes to $51.857 million. The team can restructure it again, but that will only add to future cap hits. So as the Cardinals are in some sort of a rebuild, it might make sense to absorb as much hit as possible now to have a better situation when the team has a real shot at being a contender.

Murray is under contract through 2028.

There was a doubt about Kyler Murray's future because the current regime of general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon was not the one that selected the quarterback with the first overall pick in 2019. By that time, former GM Steve Keim made a bold move, trading away Josh Rosen one year after getting him in the first round, to select Murray with the first overall pick — it ended up being the right decision, as Rosen never panned out in the NFL.

The new Cardinals management could make a similar type of decision next offseason, unloading Murray and getting a renewed timeline. But with the fourth pick instead of the first overall, the situation isn't that obvious.

Kyler Murray has had ups and downs throughout his career. His best two seasons were 2020 and 2021 — two years ago, he was part of the MVP conversation with the Cardinals starting the season 7-0. But the team finished the regular season with an 11-6 record, losing the NFC West and the wild card round game to the Los Angeles Rams. Last year, Murray was not playing at such a high level even before his knee injury.

In 2023, Murray started his first game in week 10. Since then, he's had three games grading below 60.0 according to PFF. However, he had his best game against the Eagles, getting an 85.2 overall grade, including an 86.7 passing grade.

Five potential landing spots for Kyler Murray

Quarterback is under contract through 2028