Arizona Cardinals: The Growth of Kyler Murray as a Leader

Arizona Cardinals fans have countless reasons to be fuming after Sunday’s Week 1 blowout, but Kyler Murray isn’t one of them.

A huge issue for Arizona Cardinals fans and individuals across the league last season were the optics of Kyler Murray. Not the way he threw one of the tightest spirals in the game, evaded monstrous pass rushers twice his size to connect with receivers downfield, or the way he scrambled for countless first downs. I’m talking about the way he carried himself and was ultimately perceived by fans and the national media.

The narrative surrounding Kyler Murray at the end of last season all the way to today is that he’s an incapable leader and a poor sport. While this may have been the case for the young quarterback last season, this is no longer an accurate judgement of Murray.

The Cardinals 21-44 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was an absolute embarrassment of a performance all the way from the back up players, to the starters, to the coaching staff, but Kyler NEVER lost his composure. He remained poised and visibly fought until he was pulled from a game that was clearly over. While this may be perceived as a minute positive in what was an otherwise horrific day for the Cardinals I strongly urge that it should not be overlooked.

As Kyler begins his fourth year campaign as a member of this Arizona group, Cardinals fans can all take a collective sigh of relief as their star player has finally ascended into a true leader. The Murray of old would have crumbled into a fit of self pity yesterday like the world saw him do in the brutal loss to the division rival LA Rams in last season’s Wild Card Round, but this is obviously a changed man.

Murray’s press conference after the game also highlighted the quarterback’s new demeanor. Unlike his coach Kliff Kingsbury, Murray took accountability for the team’s lackluster performance and didn’t mice words.

The team as a whole has a heck of a lot to clean up, including Murray, but as far as his attitude issues are concerned, he has already shown he’s grown into a leader this offseason, something the team desperately needed.