Rocio Robles
Hours before the 2022 NFL Draft, the Arizona Cardinals made a decision that is highly relevant to the future of both Kyler Murray and the entire organization.
According to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport, the Arizona team exercised the fifth-year option on the quarterback’s rookie contract, which will keep him with the organization until at least the 2023 campaign.
The decision comes at a time when it appears that the relationship between the two sides has improved. Since the Cardinals were eliminated in the NFC Wild Card Game against the Los Angeles Rams at the end of last season, the relationship between management and the quarterback has been strained.
After heavy criticism from both sides, trade rumors and even actions such as Murray deleting everything related to the Cardinals on his social networks, the move seems to be aimed at giving the team more time to negotiate the contract extension the 24-year-old has been asking for.
For the time being, Kyler Murray can count on earning $5.5 million this season, rising to nearly $30 million in 2023, according to Spotrac. This is the sum that the Cardinals’ option amounts to due to the two Pro-Bowl games to which the quarterback has been called in his brief career.
Kyler Murray and the Cardinals on the same page
We don’t know what repercussions this decision may bring to the relationship, but what we do know so far is that Kyler Murray and the Cardinals have been on the same page since the beginning of April.
The first example of this is that the team’s general manager, Steve Keim, emphasized at a press conference last week that there is zero chance that the organization will make a change involving Murray, even though talks for an extension have not been very productive.
“There’s no chance of something like that. I’m smart enough to know that he makes us better.”
Cardinals GM Steve Keim on possible trade of Kyler Murray
In this sense, Murray also responded to some comments on his Twitter account and assured that he wants to stay in Arizona and win a championship with the team that took him as the first overall pick in the 2019 Draft.
Murray won the circuit’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award that same season by recording 3,722 yards on 20 touchdown passes, while never throwing fewer than 3,700 yards through the air and completing fewer than 20 TDs in his career.
