In 2018 at Oklahoma, Murray was a .296 hitter with 26 extra-base knocks and 47 RBIs, as well as a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who passed for 4,361 yards, ran for 1,001 and scored 54 total touchdowns. By golly, what did he eat for breakfast?! Murray’s athletic excellence is unrivaled in a sense; he’s the only person in history to be selected in the Top 10 of the NFL and MLB drafts (the A’s picked the two-sport star 9th overall in 2018). Murray, of course, ended up choosing the pigskin over the horsehide.
Seven trips ’round the pro football calendar later, and Murray is a Viking, like he was in his youth, and could be tasked, pending a QB competition this spring and summer, to lead Minnesota’s offense in 2026. That recourse is fascinating because 1) the incredibleness of his career so far is understated, and 2) his coupling-up in Kevin O’Connell’s offense might contrast systems in which he’s flourished the most so far.
Murray is one of three NFL players all-time, along with Cam Newton and Josh Allen, to record 20,000 yards and 120 TDs passing, and 3,000 and 30 rushing, within their first 90 games. Murray is diminutive but dynamic. He’s been scarred by several lower-body injuries that forced him to miss 21 contests since 2023 but is very much in the prime of his generational-athlete lifespan. His chance to climb atop the depth chart is doubly intriguing because he doesn’t perfectly align with the mold of recent Vikings quarterbacks. External prognosticators, as a result, have noted that some of Murray’s sharpest work in the league has hinged on magical ad-libbing. That predisposition indicates that his adoption of O’Connell’s system, which is big on footwork and timing, will get microscopic treatment — every single layer picked apart, day after day and rep after rep. But even if performing outside of ideal structure is Murray’s niche, he has a bundle of strengths that are scheme agnostic: namely, accuracy and arm power.