Kyler Murray hopes to cap a memorable rookie season on Sunday
Patrick Mahomes sat for almost all of his rookie year.
Lamar Jackson sat for much of his.
Kyler Murray has had a rookie season to remember.
A Pro Bowl alternate (which means he’ll eventually make it), Murray set franchise rookie records for wins (with five), passing yards (with 3,397), touchdown passes (with 18), completions (with 323), passing attempts (with 500), and multiple touchdown-pass games (with seven).
The team has benefited as well with Murray at the helm. The Cardinals have scored 50 percent more points than last year, generated 40 percent more yards, and increased their touchdowns by 30 percent.
With 103 passing yards on Sunday against the Rams (if he plays, despite a hamstring injury), he’ll be only the second rookie in NFL history to have more than 3,500 passing yards and more than 500 rushing yards in a season, joining
Cam Newton.
Amazingly, the diminutive Murray has done it all without a single lost fumble. He’s the only quarterback with 600 or more snaps in 2019 to not lose a fumble. No rookie in the NFL’s 100 seasons has started 16 games without a lost fumble.
And Murray, despite losing twice to the 49ers, particularly bedeviled them. The 49ers have allowed a 100-plus passer rating only three times all season. Murray has two of them. Murray also has joined Carson Palmer and Kurt Warner as the only quarterbacks in franchise history to have passer ratings of 90 or more in at least seven games in a single season.
So the future seems to be very bright for the Cardinals and Kyler Murray. The question becomes whether and to what extent the Cardinals can get enough help around him in the offseason so that the Cardinals can contend in the toughtest division in the NFL. If so, Murray could have the same kind of impact that Mahomes and Jackson had in their second NFL seasons, when they each became clear-cut NFL MVPs.
