Kyler Murray enjoyed more success than any first-year starting quarterback in college football history.
He won the Heisman Trophy, led the Oklahoma Sooners to the College Football Playoff, and has a good chance of being the first quarterback off the board in the 2019 NFL draft – if not the first overall player.
Regardless, the 21 year old apparently didn't endear himself to some NFL decision-makers during his time at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
On Tuesday, NFL Network's Charley Casserly relayed the many concerns that anonymous talent evaluators recently shared with him about Murray's performance at the combine.
“He better hope Kliff [Kingsbury] takes him number one because this was not good. These were the worst comments I ever got on a highly-rated quarterback and I've been doing this a long time,” Cassley said. “Leadership – not good. Study habits – not good. The board work – below not good. Not good at all in any of those areas, raising major concerns about what this guy is going to do.
“Now, people will say we're going to compare him to Mahomes, we're going to run an offense like Mahomes, we're going to run an offense like Baker Mayfield,” he continued. “But those guys are much different. Those guys, you never questioned their leadership ability, their work habits. They were outstanding in those areas. This guy is not outstanding in those areas and it showed up in the interview.”
Most of the questions surrounding Murray's viability at the next level are about his diminutive size and inherently fragile durability. Encouraging him to stay in the pocket rather than make plays with his legs would indeed mitigate his risk of injury, but also take away one of the aspects of Murray's game that makes him so, so dangerous.
The Cardinals, with the number one pick in the draft, have reportedly began shopping incumbent signal-caller Josh Rosen.
With Texas Tech last fall, Arizona rookie coach Kliff Kingsbury said he “would take [Murray] with the first pick in the draft if I could.”
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