Cardinals need Kyler Murray back in lineup to beat Seahawks

The Arizona Cardinals need to stop pampering Kyler Murray and pressure the quarterback to get back on the field in Week 11.

If Kyler Murray has been telling the truth over the past couple of weeks, the Arizona Cardinals are leaving it up to the quarterback to decide when he’ll return to the playing field. A high ankle sprain has caused Murray to miss Arizona’s last two matchups, and we learned on Friday that the superstar signal-caller could sit once again when the squad visits the Seattle Seahawks this coming weekend.

For those of us who are diehard fans of the Cardinals, the whole situation is becoming kind of annoying. After all, Murray has participated in four consecutive practices for the team. Even so, Cards head coach Kliff Kingsbury would not guarantee that the 24-year old will be out there against Seattle on Sunday.

"“It’s the acceleration stuff that really makes him who he is. He’s got to be able to use that to escape trouble that he does naturally and instinctively. We’re still trying to get to that point.”"

That’s all fine and dandy, Kliff, but how many contests are you willing to lose in the meantime? Sure, his ability to gain yards on the ground was a huge part of Murray‘s game during his first two seasons in the NFL. However, the 5-foot-10, 207-pounder has been one of the best pocket-passers in the league thus far this fall, and can certainly be effective enough with that style to lead “Big Red” to victory in 2021.

Every game is vital if the Arizona Cardinals aim to secure the NFC’s top seed

The truth of the matter is, the Redbirds will likely fall to the Seahawks without Murray running the offense. It may not be the home-field advantage that it used to be, but Lumen Field is still extremely tough on visiting clubs. The crowd noise is deafening, and even veteran passers can struggle to put points on the board in such a hostile environment.

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson was not effective in his return from a broken finger last week, but that doesn’t mean he’ll play bad versus Arizona. In fact, the eight-time Pro Bowler might be even more motivated to lay a beating on coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense after Wilson’s awful performance against the Green Bay Packers last Sunday.

Another negative to Murray missing another week is that Colt McCoy would be getting his third consecutive start. The 35-year old played well versus the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago, but both his weaknesses and limitations were exposed during last Sunday’s 34-10 home loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Perhaps Murray shouldn’t be the one who decides when he’ll be ready to be out there with his teammates again. Kingsbury is his boss. Maybe he should start acting like it. The Cardinals need to start stacking some victories to secure the NFC’s number-one seed, and Murray must be pressed into action for the team to even have a chance of making that happen.