Kyler Murray isn’t attending Arizona’s voluntary offseason workouts. I don’t know that they’ll see him before training camp. This isn’t necessarily a huge deal, but it has me wondering how much better he might be in 2022.
There are, after all, some flaws in Arizona’s offense, through some combination of personnel, Kliff Kingsbury’s scheme and Murray’s execution. And if they’re spending the offseason arguing about this contract, that probably makes it less likely that some of those issues will be resolved.
With all of these contract issues, as an aside, I tend to come in on the side of the players. I don’t care for the current setup of the CBA, with players locked into salaries for their first four seasons that are tied to where they were selected. In my eyes, guys like Murray, A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin have proven they can play – it’s time for them to get paid. In the case of Murray, he’s been the face of Arizona’s franchise for three years, yet has a base salary under $1 million and a cap hit of about $11.4 million.
As far as Murray on the field, I saw some stats go by the other day that caught my eye. Inside the 10-yard line last year, he completed only 15 of 38 passes last year, with 7 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a sack. Those were about the worst passing stats in the league in that part of the field – successfully getting the ball in the end zone on only 7 of 39 pass plays.
Teddy Bridgewater, remarkably, threw 3 more touchdowns in that area.
Not all of those incompletions can be blamed on Murray, of course. Play design and pass protection plays a role. The end of the Green Bay game might have ended with a touchdown rather than an interception had A.J. Green been more aware that the ball was coming his way. It’s not all on Murray.
But there’s no arguing that Arizona wasn’t good in that part of the field last year. And with Murray and Kingsbury at this point seemingly not working together, it doesn’t increase by confidence that those issues will be solved for the 2022 season.
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10-YARD LINE | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Com | Att | TD | 2Pt | Pct | Int | Sk |
| Dak Prescott, Dall. | 27 | 39 | 20 | 2 | 53.7% | 0 | 2 |
| Tua Tagovailoa, Mia. | 21 | 28 | 14 | 1 | 53.6% | 0 | 0 |
| Jared Goff, Det. | 16 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 48.1% | 0 | 1 |
| Lamar Jackson, Balt. | 14 | 25 | 10 | 2 | 46.2% | 2 | 1 |
| Russell Wilson, Sea. | 11 | 19 | 8 | 1 | 45.0% | 1 | 1 |
| Kirk Cousins, Min. | 20 | 36 | 16 | 0 | 44.4% | 1 | 0 |
| Patrick Mahomes, K.C. | 35 | 52 | 22 | 1 | 42.6% | 3 | 2 |
| Joe Burrow, Cin. | 16 | 29 | 13 | 1 | 42.4% | 1 | 4 |
| Tom Brady, T.B. | 32 | 61 | 24 | 0 | 38.7% | 0 | 1 |
| Matthew Stafford, LAR | 30 | 57 | 22 | 1 | 37.7% | 1 | 4 |
| Mac Jones, N.E. | 18 | 32 | 10 | 2 | 37.5% | 0 | 0 |
| Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 12 | 24 | 9 | 1 | 37.0% | 0 | 3 |
| Justin Herbert, LAC | 30 | 60 | 18 | 5 | 35.9% | 1 | 4 |
| Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 29 | 52 | 19 | 0 | 35.8% | 1 | 1 |
| Jalen Hurts, Phil. | 15 | 27 | 7 | 3 | 34.5% | 1 | 2 |
| Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt. | 23 | 44 | 13 | 2 | 34.1% | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Tannehill, Ten. | 23 | 35 | 12 | 1 | 33.3% | 1 | 4 |
| Teddy Bridgewater, Den. | 15 | 30 | 10 | 1 | 33.3% | 1 | 3 |
| Josh Allen, Buff. | 30 | 59 | 18 | 1 | 31.7% | 1 | 1 |
| Derek Carr, L.V. | 19 | 37 | 12 | 0 | 31.6% | 2 | 1 |
| Carson Wentz, Ind. | 22 | 42 | 12 | 2 | 31.1% | 1 | 3 |
| Sam Darnold, Car. | 11 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 30.4% | 0 | 1 |
| Daniel Jones, NYG | 10 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 28.6% | 0 | 1 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo, S.F. | 13 | 31 | 8 | 1 | 28.1% | 1 | 1 |
| Zach Wilson, NYJ | 13 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 28.0% | 0 | 3 |
| Matt Ryan, Atl. | 17 | 40 | 11 | 0 | 27.5% | 0 | 0 |
| Taylor Heinicke, Was. | 10 | 25 | 7 | 0 | 25.0% | 0 | 3 |
| Trevor Siemian, N.O. | 8 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 23.8% | 0 | 0 |
| Trevor Lawrence, Jac. | 15 | 36 | 6 | 2 | 22.2% | 1 | 0 |
| Kyler Murray, Ari. | 15 | 38 | 7 | 0 | 17.9% | 2 | 1 |
In the chart above, it includes not only regular stats but pass plays on 2-point conversion attempts. The percent column does not show completions percentage; it instead shows the ratio of plays that resulted in a touchdown or 2-point conversion -- in Murray’s case, 7 touchdowns (with no 2-point conversions) divided by 39 pass plays (including 1 sack) is a success rate just under 18 percent.
—Ian Allan