Kyler Murray deleted all things Cardinals from social media, so what does this mean?
(Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images via fansided)
This might be the fastest anyone has ever jumped to conclusions in the history of sports media, but something is brewing with Kyler Murray right now. We live in the day and age where if a celebrity, athlete, or any other person of interest does something as small as changing their Twitter bio, the entire world goes bonkers. It’s stupid, but it is what it is.
Yesterday afternoon, Murray unfollowed the Arizona Cardinals on social media as well as deleted anything and everything that had to do with the organization. Now I know this may be arbitrary, but could you think of a legitimate reason as to why he would do such a thing if there wasn’t something going down internally? I don’t know about you, but to me, this doesn’t scream “Can’t wait to get back to work next season” as every other professional athlete bullshittingly says during the offseason.
The only two posts remaining on his Instagram account are a thank you note after winning the Heisman Trophy with Oklahoma back in 2018 and a compilation of pictures from his trip to the Pro Bowl last weekend.
(Screenshot of @K1 on Instragram. Taken 2/8/2022)
I wish I could tell you exactly what this means, but I’ve had about an hour to come up with a few fun theories of my own. The most obvious answer (if this even means anything) is that Murray is frustrated and/or done with the Cardinals organization altogether and would be demanding a trade this offseason. Or, simply, he wants Kliff Clownsbury out of there ASAP, and this is his unorthodox way of going about it. If it is a move he seeks the upcoming season would be the last on Murray’s rookie contract, so a move wouldn’t be impossible, but where exactly would Kyler end up?
Murray to the Buccaneers
Yes, you read that correctly. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I love this move for both parties. For the Bucs, you instantly transition from the GOAT of all GOATS to a rising star with multiple Pro Bowl selections in just three seasons, forgoing the dreadful QB search in the upcoming draft. Furthermore, the 2022 QB draft class is god awful relative to recent years, so this would save them a year of mediocrity behind center.
Now if your Kyler Murray, this move would allow you to transition into one of the more established coaching rooms and front offices in the league. Granted, things might change now that Brady is gone, but the trio of Arians, Leftwich, and Bowles is the real deal and I don’t see why Kyler or anyone would rather play for Kliff Clownsbury and co. over that bunch. Not only is the coaching staff more desirable out east in Tampa Bay, but the personnel is much more suitable for Murray’s style of play.
Sure, DeAndre Hopkins is an absurd freak of nature that any quarterback in the league would be lucky to have as his go-to guy. BUT. And this is a big but. Would you not rather have Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Rob Gronkowski to throw to? The receiving core from top to bottom is arguably the best in the NFL so I repeat: Why wouldn’t Kyler want to play in Tampa?
Murray is leaving football for the Oakland A’s
For those of you that remember, Murray was drafted 9th overall by the Oakland Athletics despite having a Heisman-winning campaign in a different sport altogether. If this were to actually happen in some alternate reality parallel universe, it would be the story of the century. We’ve seen Bo Jackson play both football and baseball at a professional level somewhat successfully, though he’ll always be remembered for what he did with a pigskin in his hands. We’ve also seen Michael Jordan swap his sneakers for cleats in the latter stages of his career, but we all know how that went.
Can Kyler do the same as those before him? As fun as it is to theorize and speculate, I don’t think this move would be realistic from a legal standpoint. There are too many contracts in place football-wise, and only God knows how the hell being drafted to the MLB works. I couldn’t tell you exactly what or who is tying him down, but there would be a legal shitstorm if he were to up and quit football to play baseball.
I’d give this move a solid 0.5% chance of happening this offseason, but it sure is fun to speculate.
Murray wants Clownsbury out
We live in an era of melodramatic, drama queen athletes that take on unorthodox methods to get what they want rather than making blunt public statements. I’m not saying Murray fits in that category exactly, but this is some drama queen shit.
By being a drama queen and portraying his emotions towards the franchise in this weird way, he is sending the Cardinals a message. Again, nobody knows exactly what all of this means or what will come out of it, if anything at all, but the most likely scenario is Murray is frustrated with the coaching staff in Arizona. Sure, Kliff Clownsbury was in the hunt for coach of the year after a 10-2 start to the season, but he crashed and burned in the second half of the season like he has every year of his career.
Going back to when he was head coach at Texas Tech, dude couldn’t put together a successful team even with one of the greatest talents at the QB position ever in Patrick Mahomes. It’s been the same story year in and year out. Start hot, finish like shit. It’s the Kingsbury motto.
Whether or not we’ll see Kyler Murray in an Arizona Cardinals uniform next year is up in the air. I’m sure something will come of this situation in the next week or so, but for now writers like me have plenty of time to bullshit narratives and clickbait our article titles. Happy theorizing football fans.