INDIANAPOLIS — Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury spoke to the media at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday for the first time since Kyler Murray and his agent released a letter on Monday asking the team to prioritize the 24-year-old's contract requests.
When asked about the situation, Kliff Kingsbury said he thinks the organization's goal is to have Kyler Murray be the organization's long term QB.
"'I think all of our long term goal here is to have Kyler be our quarterback and he understands that and he understands my view of him and how I feel about him and once again, I'm going to refer it back to the business side of things and that's not something I deal with," Kingsbury said. "But that's all part of the business right now and things we'll continue to work through.
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The odd part of all this is that Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury have the same agent, Erik Burkhardt. But, Kingsbury said at the combine that he hasn't had communication with Burkhardt or Murray about the contract issue, saying they keep it separate.
When asked, Kingsbury said he did read the statement released by Murray and his agent.
"It's part of the business," Kingsbury said. "He has a job to do and that's what he was doing."
Kingsbury also said he loves both Kyler Murray and Burkhardt but he'll let them negotiate with GM Steve Keim.
Keim spoke after Kingsbury and said he does not believe Murray would hold out if he didn't receive a new contract.
- Financial protection
- A contract in-line with the current quarterback market
- His 2022-2023 salary cap lowered so that other teammates can be resigned
- the addition of more free agents
- A "real commitment" from the organization to see if their goals align with Murray's
"It is now simply up to the Cardinals to decide if they prioritize their rapidly improving, 24-year-old, already 2X Pro Bowl QB, who led the organization from three wins before his arrival to 11 wins and their first playoff appearance in 5 years," Burkhardt wrote in the statement.
This is a continuance of a saga that started between Murray and the organization in early February when Murray deleted all of his Arizona Cardinals photos and mentions of the team from his Instagram.
After a tumultuous end to the season for Arizona, it led to questions of major friction between the Cardinals and Murray, who is obviously looking for his big contract before his rookie deal is up. That's something we've seen happen with a number of franchise QBs over the years, getting a new deal before their rookie deal is up, usually after year three and before year four, where Murray is now. Most recently from Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs and Josh Allen and the Bills.
"It's Erik Burkhardt at the end of the day trying to leverage the biggest deal possible as soon as possible for Kyler Murray," Locked On Cardinals host Bo Brack said in a guest appearance on the Locked On Today podcast Tuesday. "If you were going to put money down on whether the Cardinals are going to win more than 11 games next season and Kyler Murray was going to equal what he was able to do while he was on the field in 2021, 2022, I think the odds of that happening aren't good, so why not strike while he can."
So the question is why would the Cardinals do this now when there's obviously still another year in the deal for the upcoming season, plus a fifth-year option in 2023 which will be a high number because he's a quarterback and it's the franchise tag price essentially. The urgency is security on Murray's end.
"Are they just starting this now because they know precedent for this is that most of these QBs got a deal after their third season going into their fourth season, they got this done in the summertime," Brack said on Locked On Today. "But what's interesting is the Arizona Cardinals don't like to play in the public forum, they don't like the negotiate in the public forum, but Erik Burkhardt, the agent of Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury, he likes to play in his public arena and I think he's using that to try and turn the screws a little bit on the Cardinals."
Brack said the underlying talking point here that isn't being talked about enough is that if Kyler Murray is out in Arizona, likely Kliff Kingsbury and GM Steve Keim would be out too.
"If Kyler Murray somehow makes his way out of Arizona, those two (Kingsbury and Keim), their days are done," Brack said. "Steve Keim pivoted from Josh Rosen to Kyler Murray. This was his Hail Mary. And Kliff Kingsbury is kind of a package deal. What are you holding onto Kliff Kingsbury for if there's no Kyler Murray? And Erik Burkhardt is trying to leverage this deal and things are going to be ugly until pen is pout to paper on a mega extension."
Brack said he things the odds of this ending badly and Kyler Murray not being on the Cardinals within a year or two are very low. He believes the Cardinals organization knows and understands that they need to keep Murray around for at least another contract.
"I would say the team understands when you have a player the caliber of Kyler Murray, especially at his age and what he's already accomplished—sure people want him to take a step forward as a leader and they want him to face adversity a lot better—but at the end of the day, he's a star player. And when you have a player of that caliber at that position, you don't let him out of your building."
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