ESPN recently polled NFL coaches, scouts, and executives on who they believed were the top ten quarterbacks in the league, and naturally, thanks to his poor 2022 campaign, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was not listed. Despite this, he still received enough recognition to be mentioned in the piece, and it shows that he is still a respected name around the NFL.
A few days back, I wrote an article speculating that Murray could at least wind up in the top five among NFC quarterbacks. A top five that, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler’s article derived from the opinions of NFL coaches, scouts, and executives, includes Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins, and Jared Goff, with Derek Carr, Daniel Jones, Justin Fields, and Geno Smith also getting recognition.
It shows us that despite the poor season and setbacks, many around the league believe Murray can still be a great quarterback in this league and capable of taking the Cardinals back to and perhaps even embarking on a deep playoff run. It won’t happen this year, but with an offense geared around him, Murray has a better chance to succeed under this regime than he did under Kliff Kingsbury.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback still relevant around the NFL
Despite his 25-31-1 record with the Arizona Cardinals, Murray has made several accomplishments few quarterbacks in NFL history have made, including two Pro Bowl appearances in his first three seasons. And while I don’t personally believe the Pro Bowl holds much water these days, they are nonetheless accolades.
At this time, Murray also holds several franchise records in career completion percentage among quarterbacks with at least 300 passing attempts, (66.8%), lowest career interception percentage (2.1%), most career rushing yards by a quarterback (2,204), and most career rushing touchdowns for a quarterback (23), so he’s more than shown why he has been and can still be a top quarterback in this league.
It’s clear that those in the NFL who have seen Murray play in person still see his worth, and what he can do to opposing defenses. If Murray comes back strong and shows that he’s moved past this horrendous 2022 campaign, then don’t be surprised if you at least see him at least in the discussion for a top ten spot, even if the Cardinals don’t win many games this season.
Source: Execs, coaches, scouts rank NFL's top 10 quarterbacks for 2023 by Jeremy Fowler, ESPN.com
(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference)