Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Murray in no hurry to scurry, but Cards QB can if he has to
Top draft pick elusive, but he has strong arm that can deliver strikes
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Kyler Murray took off around the left end of the line, made a quick cut and raced through the secondary for a big gain, drawing a rising roar from the fans who watched it unfold right below them.
OK, so it was one run during a training camp practice. Murray wasn’t allowed to be hit, wasn’t even wearing pads.
Even so, the burst and bolt was what the Cardinals and their fans had hoped to see from the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft.
The next step is doing it against NFL teams intent on squashing Arizona’s diminutive quarterback.
After an offseason of seeing what Murray can do firsthand, Cardinals players have no doubt the show he put on at Oklahoma will continue in the pros.
“He’s been really impressive, on and off the field,” Cardinals receiver Trent Sherfield said Saturday before Arizona’s first practice in pads.
The Cardinals were so enamored of Murray’s skills, they used the top pick in this year’s draft to take the reigning Heisman Trophy winner despite using the No. 10 overall pick last year on Josh Rosen, who was traded to Miami.
They saw Murray as a generational talent, a game-changing quarterback who would be a perfect fit for new coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offensive experiment in the desert.
Other teams have implemented versions of the Air Raid-style offenses that have been so successful at the college level, but none has gone all-in with it as Kingsbury is attempting.
Murray will be the key to making it work.
Though undersized for an NFL quarterback at 5 feet 10 inches, he’s a pinpoint passer who can avoid long-armed defensive lineman by changing arm angles, similar to Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. He’s an adept passer on the run and can use his agility to escape oncoming pass rushers, a la Seattle’s Russell Wilson.
Murray also has the speed to turn an innocuous scramble into a game-changing touchdown run, as Michael Vick did in his prime.
And he has a pair of advantages over other would-be rookie starting quarterbacks.
The first is Kingsbury’s system. Though new to the NFL, Murray knows it inside out. Oklahoma ran a similar offensive system as Kingsbury did at Texas Tech and Murray did pretty well with it, racking up more than 5,300 combined yards and 53 touchdowns.
Murray also knows the terminology, putting him ahead of Arizona’s veteran players, at least during the offseason.
“It’s helped me a lot, coming in and being more comfortable,” Murray said. “If I was to go anywhere else, play for another guy, have to learn a whole new system, a whole new offense, it would be a lot hard, obviously. For me coming into this system, Day 1 and through rookie minicamp, I’m probably more comfortable than any other quarterback out there.”