The Arizona Cardinals selected quarterback Kyler Murray with the first overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Despite their 0-2-1 record, Murray's definitely been a success.
However, there is something that should be pretty worrying – his high sack total.
Murray has been sacked 16 times. That's more than any team in the NFL not named the Tennessee Titans (17 sacks allowed).
This causes a lot of issues. It speaks to the offensive line, but could also indicate that Murray doesn't get rid of the ball fast enough sometimes.
Most importantly though, it halts the offense and puts Murray at a higher risk of injury.
All that being said, head coach Kliff Kingsbury isn't concerned about it according to Jess Root of Cardswire.com:
“That’s part of the process of being a rookie,” he said. “We understand in those three games we’ve had to drop back and throw it a lot more than we want to and anticipate doing.”
Another reason why Kingsbury isn’t concerned right now is the type of sacks they have been.
“If you look at it, they haven’t been of the violent variety, if you will,” he said. “There are some things where he’s going down in the pocket. They’re getting a hand on him here and there.”
The Cardinals are a young team. Therefore, it makes sense that Kingsbury isn't too worried about the high sack numbers in that regard. Everything in the NFL takes time and experience to learn. You can't expect Murray to go in there day one and outperform everyone else in that category. It's a feeling-out process that he still needs to learn.
The other point is a little confusing though. Murray has definitely taken some big hits and sure, some aren't dreadful looking but it's all about the number anyways. The more hits he takes, the more likely an injury is to occur. It doesn't really matter if they aren't absolute hit sticks.
For Murray's sake, let's hope they figure it out sooner rather than later, even if it isn't concerning Kingsbury too much.
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