QB Murray will be game-time decision
Kyler Murray’s record-setting rookie season might not be over after all.
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury announced on Friday that Murray is questionable with a tender right hamstring and will be a game-time decision for Sunday’s season finale at the Los Angeles Rams. If he can’t go, backup Brett Hundley will start at quarterback.
““We don’t,” Kingsbury said when asked if he has a good idea on Murray’s status for Sunday. “He’s getting more work, but I’m not sure if he’ll be ready to go Sunday. Brett’s been getting more work than him at this point.”
Kingsbury said Drew Anderson, the team’s undrafted rookie free agent from Murray State, will be elevated off the practice squad and signed to the active roster as insurance. If Murray doesn’t play, Anderson will serve as the backup to Hundley.
Nothing will be determined until Sunday morning, however, according to Kingsbury.
“I want him to be able to play his game,” Kingsbury said. “Obviously, his ability to move and make plays with his feet and be confident doing that is a big part of that. I don’t want to put him out there if he’s not feeling 100 percent against a very good Rams’ defense and a very good defensive line that has gotten after people. That’s not fair to him.
“We’ll make sure that he’s feeling great about the situation. If he’s not, I really like what I’ve seen from Brett in practice.”
Murray tried to test the hamstring in practice this week, but his participation was limited each of the past three days. He initially showed up on the injury report two days before Arizona’s 34-7 loss to the Rams in Week 13. It was because of a sore right hamstring, but he played in the game and hadn’t missed a snap until last week’s win at Seattle, when he came out of the game early in the second half.
“I haven’t really been hurt all season,” Murray said Tuesday when he last met with reporters. “I got hurt during baseball season a couple of times. But during football season, never have I been hurt. Having one game left, obviously I want to finish the season out strong.
“… I mean, I think any competitor wants to play the game. Especially being my rookie season and being the last one and having that bad taste in my mouth from the last game (against the Rams).”
The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft out of Oklahoma, Murray has completed 323 of 500 pass attempts (64.6 completion percentage) for 3,397 yards, 18 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and an 87.9 passer rating. He’s set franchise rookie records for wins, passing yards, TD passes, completions and attempts and games (four) with 300 or more passing yards.
Murray also established a team record for most rushing yards by a quarterback (544) and is just 103 passing yards shy of becoming the sixth player and second rookie in NFL history with 3,500 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in a season.
Murray was named an NFC alternate for the Pro Bowl last week and is in the running for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. It’s believed to be a two-man race between Murray and Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, who has rushed for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns. Jacobs isn’t expected to play on Sunday because of a shoulder injury that’s kept him out of two of the past three games.
“What he’s done at the quarterback position as a rookie is almost unprecedented when you look at it,” Kingsbury said of Murray. “To come in and start Day 1, the production he’s had, the game-changing plays and then protecting the football. … He hasn’t lost a fumble the entire season, which is incredible.
“It’s not one of those situations where he was able to come in and we were kind of playing great defense and running the football. I mean, it’s been on him week-in and week-out and he’s responded. I think when you ask the teams he’s played against, they would speak very highly of how he’s performed.”
Chandler Jones honored again
Linebacker Chandler Jones has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season, increasing his chances to possibly take home an even bigger honor after the season – NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Jones is clearly in the mix for that title following his best NFL season yet in which he leads the league with 19 sacks and eight forced fumbles to go along with 63 tackles, 10 of them for loss, 25 quarterback hits and three fumble recoveries.
In last Sunday’s 27-13 win over the Seahawks in Seattle, Jones sacked Russell Wilson four times and forced two fumbles as the Cardinals won for the fifth time in their past seven visits to CenturyLink Field.
He also won Defensive Player of the Week honors following Arizona’s Week 7 victory at the New York Giants in which he also posted a four-sack game. He joins Reggie White (2 in 1986) and Karl Mecklenburg (2 in 1985) as the only players in NFL history to record multiple four-sack games in a single season since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Jones becomes just he second Cardinals player (Antrel Rolle in 2007) to be named Defensive Player of the Week twice in a season since the award was created in 1984. Jones joins Robert Mathis (191⁄2 sacks and 10 forced fumbles in 2013) as the only players with 19-plus sacks and 8-plus forced fumbles in a season in NFL history.
Should he get four more sacks on Sunday, Jones would break Michael Strahan’s NFL single-season sack record of 221⁄2 set in 2001.
“I’m not even looking at Strahan’s record, to be honest with you,” Jones said. “That’s the last thing that’s on my mind. My biggest thing is trying to finish this season strong, whatever that may be, finishing it healthy and getting ready for next year. As far as chasing records, I’m never one to stat chase. I let the stats come.”
Arizona writers’ chapter awards
Murray and left guard Justin Pugh were honored on Friday by the Arizona chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association. Murray received the Lloyd Herberg MVP Award for his outstanding performance this year; Pugh earned the Steve Schoenfeld Good Guy Award for his cooperation and insight in dealing with the media.
The MVP award is named after Lloyd Herberg, former Cardinals beat writer for who covered the team from the time the franchise moved here in 1988 until his death from cancer in May of 1994.
The Good Guy award is named after Steve Schoenfeld, another former
writer who covered the Cardinals and the NFL from 1988 to 2000. A former national president of the PFWA, Schoenfeld was killed by a hitand-run driver in October of 2000.