NO QUESTION
Cards coach makes it clear: Murray is QB going forward
“What the guy’s done for us, the player that he is, the person that he is, the competitor that he is. You know, I kind of chuckle. That’s been my view for since I got here. He’s done everything I asked since I got here.”
Not only has Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon been convicted from his first day on the job in his belief that Kyler Murray is the team’s franchise quarterback going forward, but Gannon was somewhat surprised that Murray’s future was even questioned at all by outsiders.
“You guys watch the tape, don’t you?” Gannon said Wednesday as the Cardinals got set to begin their final week of practice for the season.
So, after all of the speculation that Murray might not be the right guy for one reason or another, ranging from his ability to win on the field to his ability to lead off of it and the idea that the new Cardinals regime in place headed by General Manager Monti Ossenfort might want to move on from a quarterback drafted his predecessor, now more than ever it looks like Murray is indeed the guy.
It doesn’t come as a shock. Signs and comments from Cardinals coaches and even teammates pointed to this being the case since Murray returned from
Jonathan Gannon
Cardinals head coach on QB Kyler Murray
knee injury rehab midway through the season. And if Murray was being evaluated week to week to determine his future, last Sunday’s three-touchdown, 15point comeback win performance might have sealed the deal.
“What the guy’s done for us, the player that he is, the person that he is, the competitor that he is. You know, I kind of chuckle. That’s been my view for since I got here,” Gannon said. “He’s done everything I asked since I got here.”
Murray said Gannon’s and the organization’s belief in him means a lot.
“But you know, he’s told me that since day one, so for me, it was really nothing that was in the back of my mind or anything like that,” Murray said. “I wasn’t really worried about it. I was just focused on going out there and playing well, proving them right, prove him right. I continue to try to do that every day.”
There’s been a connection between Gannon and Murray that goes back to even before Gannon got the Cardinals’ job. Both looked excited to meet and get to know each other right from the start of their relationship. And it meant a lot to Murray when Gannon, Ossenfort and some of the coaching staff were there in Norman, Oklahoma for the unveiling of Murray’s Heisman Trophy statue on the Oklahoma University campus.
The Cardinals contingent showed up just days before the NFL draft last April.
Last year when Gannon arrived for an in-person interview for the Cardinals head coach job, he and Murray talked football for a little while.
“Chopped it up a little for about 15 minutes in the weight room before he had to go do his thing. And I mean, at that moment, you know, (it was) instant as far as OK, this guy, his knowledge of the game and how he sees the game and stuff like that,” Murray said. “And then obviously, he got the job. And from that day on it was kind of like, oh, I won’t say when you meet your best friend but that type of like instant you know ... we kind of speak the same language.”
As with anything in football and sports, things could always change. But it might make more sense for the Cardinals to stick with Murray and continue to build around him with say, a highly talented wide receiver early in the draft
this year, than to dump him and take a chance with a new franchise quarterback and have to start everything from scratch.
Murray is building trust in his offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing. He’s learned from and become close with quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork. He’s spoken highly of the receivers he’s worked with this season and he’s helped turn Trey McBride into one of the league’s top young tight ends.
“We’ve spoken at length about kind of how he’s handled things and coming off the injury and playing late in the season. Been really pleased with that,” Petzing said Tuesday. “I think, as we all know, there’s things we need to grow on, things he needs to grow on. So I think
that’s going to be the focus, kind of like we talked about every week, and now just put into the big picture. It’s like ‘Hey, here’s what we did. Well, here’s what you did. Well, here’s what I did well, and here’s where you, me and all of us need to improve to get where we want to go next season.’ I don’t think that mindset is going to change very much.”
Murray said he is “locked in” when it comes to being in lockstep with Gannon, Ossenfort and the franchise.
“I mean, you want to win for a guy like that. He’s the type of guy who you run through a wall for, because he’s got your back,” Murray said of Gannon. “So that’s that’s definitely, I think it helped for sure. But I mean, I’m always trying to win, regardless of who it is, but for sure.”