Meeting Murray:
Our 12-page NFL draft pullout looks at No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray, a small quarterback by NFL standards who has managed to avoid injuries while making big plays from a small frame. What does his high-impact game mean for the Cardinals and the NFL?
For a guy who’s supposedly too short to be a star quarterback in the NFL, Kyler Murray sure has a knack for avoiding the two biggest dangers a smallish QB faces — getting his bell rung and having his passes batted down at the line.
Neither of those major dilemmas has ever seemed to be an issue for 5-10 Murray, whom the Arizona Cardinals drafted with the first pick last week.
In addition to citing his uncanny playmaking ability as both a pocket passer and a quick-as-lightning ballcarrier when he decides to run, it’s Murray’s ability to evade heavy contact and to always find open passing lanes that completely sold Arizona on picking the shortest quarterback to be drafted in the first round in more than 50 years.
“I think he’s just a really smart football player. He’s always been a smaller football player, so he’s developed that over the years, and in high school he was doing that,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said of Murray’s elusiveness and ability to get out of bounds, to slide or to go down before taking a hit. “He was finding the soft spot, getting down. … He’s been raised to be a quarterback and protect himself on the field and do all these things. He’s learned this at an early age.”
General manager Steve Keim points to Murray’s medical history, which to this point in his career has been as clean as Kingsbury’s record in the NFL. “You say, ‘OK, well maybe he’s a smaller quarterback. Is he going to get hurt? Is he fragile?’ ” Keim said. “He’s never hurt. He’s never in the training room. He’s thickly put together. Aside from the fact that’s not 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5, I think the guy is extremely unique.”
And as for that penchant for being able to throw over or through the bodies and arms of hulking defensive linemen, just take note of this:
“You talk about height being a detriment, but it really isn’t when you watch the tape,” Keim said. “If you do your homework, there are 6-foot-5 quarterbacks in this draft that have had 12 balls batted down. This guy had five balls batted down. So he has a great feel for pocket presence, sliding and finding windows, and he’s certainly very good with his eyes, not only looking off and just reason progressions.”
After a late-night flight out of Nashville, the site of this year’s draft, Murray was formally introduced the next day at the Cardinals’ Tempe training facility. He said he’s glad other people recognize that his stature isn’t a limitation and he’s aims to keep proving it now that he’s about to embark on an NFL career that will have everyone watching his every move.
“As a kid, that’s what you dream of — going to an organization and being that guy, turning the program around, the organization around, winning Super Bowls,” he said. “I don’t shy away from hard work. I feel like
“He’s been raised to be a quarterback and protect himself on the field.” Coach Kliff Kingsbury