Kyler Murray placed on the hot seat for the 2022 season

Heading into his fourth season as the starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, Kyler Murray recently had the “hot seat” tag placed on him.

In his third season with the franchise last year, quarterback Kyler Murray was able to lead the Arizona Cardinals to the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

The Cardinals have improved their win total in each of Murray‘s three seasons with the team, and in 2021, the quarterback helped Arizona snap a five-year streak of not finishing a season with a winning record.

Despite the strides the Cardinals have made with Murray as their starting signal-caller since 2019, some still believe the quarterback is entering a pivotal season in his NFL career. One person has even gone as far to claim that Murray is on the hot seat entering the 2022 campaign.

Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray placed on the hot seat before his fourth NFL season

Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox recently shared a list of quarterbacks from around the league that he believes are currently on the hot seat as they prepare for the 2022 season.

Knox included Murray on this list and he has his reasons for why he thinks the Arizona quarterback is on the hot seat.

"“He’s been good but not good enough to carry Arizona deep into the postseason—and now Murray appears to be angling for a new deal. His agent, Erik Burkhardt, also released a statement expressing Murray’s desire for a long-term deal that is “in line with the current QB market.Will the Cardinals reward Murray with a lucrative long-term second contract? That will likely depend on how he performs in 2022. If the Oklahoma product doesn’t deliver a postseason victory, Arizona may hesitate to extend him.”"

Arguments for extending and not extending Murray this year can easily be made. But is it fair to put the majority of the Cardinals’ struggles during the last few seasons on the shoulders of their young quarterback?

If anything, the argument could be made that Arizona doesn’t even sniff the playoffs last year without Murray as their starting signal-caller.

At 24-years-old, he’s one of the best young quarterbacks in the league, and for him to be placed on the hot seat after a season in which he led his team to the playoffs seems a bit premature.

Also included on Knox’s list are Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, Ryan Tannehill, Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts, and Tua Tagovailoa. Murray easily outperformed all six of these quarterbacks last season and there’s no reason to think he won’t do it again during the 2022 campaign.

It’s fair to say that there is certainly some additional pressure on Murray to succeed next season given the kind of contract he would like to receive in the near future. But to place him on the hot seat just seems a little drastic at this point in his NFL career.