The Arizona Cardinals are 2-0 thanks to an impressive win over the Tennessee Titans, and a narrow victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Kyler Murray is off to a red-hot start, having completed 73.5% of his passes for 689 yards and seven touchdowns, along with three interceptions. Murray is averaging over ten yards per attempt, and has posted and NFL passer rating of 121.5.
But to hear the quarterback discuss the season, you would think the numbers are at anything but an MVP level.
“We just got to clean a lot of stuff up,” Murray said after the win over Minnesota. “It’s a long season.” The quarterback continued. “I tell you all the time, it comes down to shooting ourselves in the foot and stopping ourselves,” Murray said. “We score, it feels easy and it feels fun. And then when we turn the ball over, negative plays, it’s like, ‘Damn, that s— feels ugly.’ But it is what it is. We have to continue to get better and continue to practice.”
To hear head coach Kliff Kingsbury tell the story, Murray is in a very good spot. “The game has really slowed down for him,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said of Murray. “You see him doing stuff that he did at the collegiate level. He’s very confident in his legs and moving around, and making throws, and extending plays. It’s Year 3 and hopefully we can keep it going.”
We often hear that phrase when discussing quarterbacks, that the “game has slowed down for them.” You can truly see that with Murray this season, and that ability to read the game better, to make informed decisions at his own pace, is why despite the quarterback’s frustrations, the league should be terrified.
Take this throw from Week 1 against the Titans:
This play is a perfect example of the game slowing down for a quarterback. The Titans drop into Cover-2 on this play, while the Arizona Cardinals run a concept known for beating that coverage to the right side of the field, “go/flat.” Christian Kirk, the slot receiver, runs the flat route while A.J. Green runs the go.
Murray reads the cornerback and makes a decision off of his reaction. But instead of waiting for the CB to make his move, Murray flashes the football and gets the cornerback to bite. The defender peels off the vertical route from Green and tries to trap Kirk’s route to the flat. Murray, seeing this, resets and throws the vertical route.
A quarterback cannot make that kind of read and adjustment if the game is too fast for them. Murray makes it with ease, and it certainly does not hurt that he can reset and throw a frozen rope like he does on this play.
Or take this throw from Sunday against the Vikings:
On this snap, the quarterback initially wants to throw to Green, who is running a crossing route working from left to right. But as Murray hits his depth in the pocket, he spots safety Harrison Smith, who came crashing down to a linebacker’s depth just before the snap, retreating to get under Green’s route and into the throwing lane.
Murray, who has started to uncork a throw to Green, spots that and resets, flipping his eyes and feet to the other side of the field, where he picks up DeAndre Hopkins and hits him in a soft spot between two underneath defenders for a 15-yard gain, and a fresh set of downs.
A younger Murray might have tried to fit that throw into Green. The more mature Murray, with the game having slowed down for him, spots the safety, and resets himself to make the right read and throw.
Perhaps the best evidence that the game is slowing down for a quarterback comes in the realm of anticipation throws. Last season, when Josh Allen got off to his torrid start, you saw moments where Allen was making those anticipation throws, and not waiting to see the receiver come open before letting it fly.
We know how his season ended up…
This is an area where Murray is showing growth as well. Take this example on a well-designed concept from Kingsbury. The Cardinals use an empty formation out of 12 offensive personnel, with tight ends Maxx Williams and Darrell Daniels in a double-wing to the right with Chase Edmunds aligned towards that sideline. The tight ends both release vertically. To the left side, Hopkins is in the slot — dare we say a sign of growth from the coach himself — while Green is to the outside. Hopkins will run a wheel route while Green comes underneath him on a slant.
This gives Murray a nice half-field read. He can target the Hopkins/Green combination against man coverage or if he likes a particular matchup, but the vertical routes from the tight ends, coupled with the slant route from Edmunds, will be a good concept against zone.
Here, the Vikings drop into a single-high zone coverage, and Murray attacks up the seam to Williams, letting the pass fly as the tight end clears the underneath zone defenders:
If Murray waits on this to see it truly come open, the safety can react and make a play on the body or the ball. But because he anticipates this route coming open, the ball is on Williams before the defenders can react.
Again, the game has slowed down for him.
While Murray might be frustrated, thinking the Cardinals left points on the board last week, these plays show that the quarterback has truly taken a step forward.
Which should be terrifying for the rest of the league.