Kyler Murray remains the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. Kliff Kingsbury is no longer the head coach. Arizona has long since moved on from embattled former general manager Steve Keim.
In no way has this put an end to the drama between the three after a disastrous 2022 campaign in the desert.
Murray continued this with comments he made about the Cardinals’ former brass just recently, seemingly throwing both Kingsbury and Keim under the bus.
“I’m thinking of stuff that I wasn’t part of, like the draft, who we were gonna get, young players coming out,” Kyler Murray said earlier in July, via the Cardinals’ official website. “The whole (last) year was (expletive). It happened for a reason. The things we were doing weren’t sustainable for success.”
Arizona posted a 4-13 record a season ago, finishing last in the NFC West. The team lost 11 of its final 13, including seven consecutive games to end the campaign. For his part, Murray missed the final four games after suffering a torn ACL. It’s rather obvious that he’s throwing some of the blame for the Cardinals’ struggle in the direction of Keim and the aforementioned Kingsbury.
Related: Ranking Kyler Murray and the NFL’s 32 starting QBs
As for the former Arizona general manager, Keim added a whole new level to this drama during a recent interview with Colin Cowherd on FS1 in responding to Murray’s aforementioned comments.
“I certainly didn’t want to hear that. And nor do fans want to hear a guy who’s making $46.1 million a year blame anybody but himself,” Keim said.
“I’m not saying he’s a guy that blames people. Yet at the same time, when you get that bag of cash, everybody expects you to take it on your shoulders, and that’s what a franchise quarterback does. This is a big year. I would have actually had Kyler in my top five for guys under pressure, because what if they have a bad year?”
Uh. It seems pretty clear that Keim knew exactly what he was saying in these comments. It’s not that he’s completely wrong. Rather it’s the tone an individual who selected Murray No. 1 in the NFL Draft took that should be considered somewhat of a surprise.
Related: Arizona Cardinals standing in Sportsnaut’s NFL power rankings
Kyler Murray will have to handle criticism better with the Arizona Cardinals
On another note, Murray’s previous comments were not a great look. He needs to take responsibility for some of the struggles of the past couple years. That’s the only way he’ll earn the respect of his new coaching staff and teammates.
It’s also not like criticism won’t be the name of the game this season and moving forward. Murray regressed big time in 2022, mere months after he inked a massive five-year, $230.5 million contract.
- Kyler Murray stats (2022): 66% completion, 2,368 yards, 14 TD, 7 INT
The Cardinals have lost 13 of their past 17 games with Murray starting dating back to December of 2021.
There are also no real expectations for this team heading into the 2023 season. In addition to Murray still being sidelined, Arizona is not anywhere near as talented as 2022 playoff teams in that of the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West.
Being a starting quarterback in the NFL brings pressure. Being paid like Murray is adds more to that. It’s now all about how he handles said pressure.
As for Keim, it might be time to move on and stop with the newspaper-headline quotes relating to his former quarterback.
