There’s been longstanding rumors about a potential Kyler Murray trade from the Arizona Cardinals.
Coming off just his third NFL season, the former No. 1 pick is eligible for an extension for the first time in his career. It’s led to some public bickering between the two sides with Murray previously going as far as removing any mention of the organization from his social media accounts.
In speaking about a potential trade of his franchise quarterback on Thursday, Cardinals general manager Steve Keim didn’t pull any punches. “Zero chance,” Keim responded when asked about a Kyler Murray trade moving forward.
Murray has remained away from Cardinals voluntary workouts this week, joining a ton of other young players to skip the early off-season part of the schedule while dealing with contractual issues.
It was also noted earlier in April that Murray’s agent, Erik Burkhardt of Select Sports Group, rescinded an offer he made to the Cardinals regarding a potential extension. For their part, the Cards have yet to offer Murray a concrete extension since he finished up shop on a down season back in January.
For his part, Murray also took to social media on Thursday to talk about his future in Arizona. In the process, he seemingly attempted to quiet some of the rumors we’ve heard come from the desert in recent weeks.
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Let’s be clear here. Arizona would be absolutely foolish to trade a 24-year-old quarterback who has produced at a high level throughout his first three NFL seasons. Murray is under contract for the 2022 season. Arizona also boasts a team option for the 2023 campaign.
He can make all the noise he wants publicly, but it doesn’t change the fact that Arizona holds an advantage here given that fifth-year team option. Outside of that, there’s not a single quarterback available via the NFL trade market or next week’s draft that would be able to provide the Cardinals what we’ve seen from Murray in his first three NFL seasons.
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Murray is set to earn a base salary of $965,000 next season. The Cardinals will also soon pick up his estimated $29.70 million option for the 2023 campaign before the deadline later this offseason.
To say that the former Oklahoma standout is underpaid in the grand scheme of things is an understatement. The likes of Deshaun Watson ($46 million annually), Matthew Stafford ($40 million), Derek Carr ($40.5 million) and Aaron Rodgers ($50.27 million) all received huge extensions earlier this offseason.
With that said, it’s just the nature of the beast under the current NFL Collective Bargaining agreement. In reality, teams tend to wait until their quarterbacks complete a fourth season in the NFL to sign them to huge long-term extensions.
Despite Keim’s stance on Thursday and Murray’s notable tweet, none of this changes the fact that Kyler Murray trade rumors will be the name of the game moving forward until he lands a new deal that will pay the youngster north of $40 million annually.