{"id":851260,"date":"2026-04-03T13:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851260\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:45:17","slug":"nfl-executives-rip-cardinals-for-kyler-murray-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851260\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL executives rip Cardinals for Kyler Murray decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quarterback Kyler Murray was able to sign<\/a> a team-friendly one-year contract to join the\u00a0Minnesota Vikings<\/a> in free agency because the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> owe him $38M in fully guaranteed money for next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur is currently on track<\/a> to start either Jacoby Brissett or Gardner Minshew at quarterback this coming September. For a piece published on Friday, Mike Sando<\/a> of The Athletic spoke with multiple unnamed NFL executives who seemed baffled by how the Cardinals handled Murray.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCardinals are worse without Kyler Murray?\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel like they could have done a lot of different things, but they chose not to,” one executive said about the Cardinals parting ways with Murray. “They just wanted him off the roster, wanted to save the $19.5M (in 2027 salary that would have become fully guaranteed this month). They did not want to mess with it. I don\u2019t know why. They don\u2019t have a good enough roster where that $19.5M really matters.”<\/p>\n

There’s no indication the Cardinals made a strong move to sign Malik Willis before\u00a0he and the\u00a0Miami Dolphins<\/a>\u00a0agreed to\u00a0a three-year deal\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0worth $67.5M. Thus, executives pointed out that Arizona theoretically could have afforded to keep or trade Murray.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know why you would not just keep him on your roster for the whole season and then figure it out next year,” a second executive said about the Cardinals’ Murray decision. “You could probably trade him straight up off the $19.5M, or if you cut him, then he\u2019s making $1.5M next year with someone else, so it\u2019s an $18M risk. If you can get a third-round pick for him, that is well worth the risk.”<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWould any team have traded for Kyler Murray?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0New York Jets<\/a>\u00a0may or may not be\u00a0“tanking”<\/a>\u00a0the 2026 season with the 2027 NFL Draft in mind by opening the upcoming campaign with journeyman Geno Smith atop their depth chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“How were the Cardinals not able to trade him to the Jets, eat $35M this year, and then the Jets are on the hook for the $19.5M next year? That is basically two years at $25M,” one of the executives added about Murray. “The Jets would not have signed up for that?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

One February report\u00a0indicated<\/a>\u00a0the Jets may not have signed up for that due to concerns related to Murray’s attitude and work ethic. What’s done is done, and Murray is now\u00a0seen<\/a>\u00a0by many as the favorite to begin the 2026 season as Minnesota’s QB1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quarterback Kyler Murray was able to sign a team-friendly one-year contract to join the\u00a0Minnesota Vikings in free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341081725038923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}