The Cardinals are reportedly set to have ‘extensive discussions’ with Kyler Murray — but let’s be honest, there’s nothing to discuss
Kyler and the Cardinals are going to have ‘the talk’.
Kyler Murray‘s 2025 season with the Arizona Cardinals hasn’t exactly gone to plan. Arizona, entering into a third season with head coach Jonathan Gannon at the helm, were hoping for this season to be a coming-out party. Two wins to start the season seemed to indicate as such too, only for the offense to stumble harshly and the team’s franchise quarterback to miss time due to injury.
In his absence, the offense has found new life under the direction of quarterback Jacoby Brissett. Murray is now parked on injured reserve, which will keep him out at least four games. The Cardinals failed to exceed 293 yards of offense just once in Murray’s five starts this season (against lowly Tennessee). They’ve gone over 330 yards in each of Brissett’s three starts to date.
And now, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Kyler and the Cardinals are expected to have “the talk” this offseason. It should be a pretty brief conversation.
Kyler Murray and the Cardinals expected to have ‘extensive discussions’ about the future, but there’s nothing to talk about
“The Cardinals must decide by this offseason whether to try to trade Murray, release him or pay another $19.5 million in guaranteed money that becomes due on the fifth day of the new league year in mid-March.
Arizona and Murray are expected to have extensive discussions to help determine whether to move forward together or go their own ways. Many sources believe the latter is the likely outcome, with one source saying this week that “a separation is imminent.””
— ESPN’s Adam Schefter on the Cardinals & QB Kyler Murray discussing their future
Kyler Murray’s all-time rankings in Cardinals’ passing record books
- 20,460 passing yards (third in franchise history)
- 121 career passing touchdowns (third in franchise history)
- 92.2 passer rating (first among qualifying quarterbacks)
- 38 wins as a starter (tied for third in franchise history)
Murray will be a 29-year-old quarterback next August. He’s posted one winning season as a starter (9-5 in 2021) across his six plus years in Arizona. He was at his best playing for a head coach in Kliff Kingsbury who had optimized the offense to match Kyler’s skill set. The transition to Gannon and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing has been a hard one. Murray has career worst numbers this season in yards per attempt (6.0), QBR (44.1), sack rate (9.04%), and adjusted net yards per attempt (4.72).
And that’s exactly why these ‘extensive conversations’ should be fairly short. We’re deep enough into this coaching staff’s tenure with the organization for them to feel some heat — and they weren’t the group that gave Murray his current contract extension in the first place. It’s Murray, or it’s the staff. And the coaching staff and front office have shown enough promise to warrant the benefit of the doubt and the chance to pick their own guy.
Murray’s contract is into the rolling guarantees portion of the language. He’s already guaranteed nearly $40 million in compensation in 2026 according to Spotrac — a $22.835M base salary and a $17M roster bonus that fully guaranteed this past March. It’s the 2027 guarantees that hang in the balance, with $19.5M in salary for 2027 scheduled to fully guarantee the fifth day of the league year in March. Arizona knows what they have in Kyler Murray at this stage. And Jacoby Brissett is showing them what they could have as a team with a quarterback suited for Petzing and company.
Which should, all things considered, make any needed conversations pretty open and shut.
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