Right after the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football in front of a national audience to advance their record to 3-5-0, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon held his post-game press conference.
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When asked how he thought QB Jacoby Brissett played against Dallas, Gannon stated:
“I thought he played well. Thought he operated. We had one protection issue. That’s on me. We got to do a better job with that. We just got to keep him clean,
and he shows how he can deliver the football. He battles. He has gotten us out of a hole a couple of times now in the last couple of games. He’s resilient, bounces back, and plays the next play.”
Today, Gannon’s assessment of Brissett and the quarterback controversy became moot when the Cardinals placed Murray on the IR list. The placement does not seem to be season-ending, as Murray will have a chance to return with a minimum of four weeks on the list.
Gannon told ESPN Arizona:
“I really do [hope that happens],” Gannon said. “We got a lot of ball to play, and one day at a time. And where he sits right now is he’s got to pour into his health bucket and get ready to get healthy.”
This weekend’s game, Arizona faces division foe Seattle Seahawks (6-2-0) on the road in the afternoon slot. In their first matchup, the Seahawks held a 20-6 lead before Arizona came back to tie the game with 28 seconds remaining, only to have Seattle get in field goal range to win 23-20.
The following week, against the Tennessee Titans, starting QB Kyler Murray became injured and hasn’t played since.
Gannon added:
“Jacoby does his job, takes it one day at a time, prepares when he wasn’t the starter, prepares to be the starter. “He knows his role can change, and now he’s going to prepare the same way.”
Which is a complete turnaround since the Cowboys win. After the game, in the post-game presser in Dallas, Gannon was asked about Murray. Specifically, the media question that was rendered was, “Will Kyler still be your starting quarterback when you…..”
Gannon interrupted and said:
“Yeah, nothing’s changed on that. That’s how I feel.”
Then came another poignant question from another reporter: “Is there anything Jacoby can show you to win this starting job?” Gannon’s answer?
“Like I said, nothing’s changed.”
Brissett has completed 65.7% of his passes and has thrown six touchdowns against a single interception in three games. He is also a QB sneak guru and has only been stopped short once in his career. Plus, the offense is able to convert a high number of third-down attempts, no matter the down and distance.
Then Brissett was brought out to the podium in order to answer questions. One reporter asked, “The offense has put up more than 300 yards a game the last three weeks, averaging 25 points. Why is this offense so effective with you under center?”
Brissett is the ultimate professional. He recognizes a “throw another player under the bus” question when he hears it. He is a team-first player. He also identifies that he has zero control over who plays on game day. He countered with:
“I don’t think it’s me. I really don’t. Everybody gets caught up in the beginning of the season, and everything’s going well or not going well. Good teams in this league find a way to continue to get better. That’s what we are doing at this point in the season. You tweak things. We are going back after this game and find out what we should do better.”
The idea to place Murray on IR began as a conversation on Tuesday night and became more clear Wednesday morning. It was a decision between the coaching staff, the quarterback, and his agent. Gannon has always stated that Murray is this team’s starting quarterback.
Gannon further noted:
“He’s not fully healthy, ready to go yet, so that makes the most sense. Obviously that’s a change, but we just felt. looking at it right now, that’s the best thing for him and us. He’s fully committed. Right now, what he’s going to concentrate on is getting healthy. He’s not healthy enough to play. He needs to get healthy so he can get back to playing football.”
The question after the Cowboys game was if Murray is actually a better quarterback than Brissett or the other way around. One of the TV analysts, Troy Aikman, a former Hall of Fame and Super Bowl quarterback himself, stated on air that he believes Brissett should remain the starter even after Murray is medically cleared to play.
Then early Tuesday, Gannon stated that Brissett would get his fourth consecutive start against Seattle.
Gannon had this to say about Murray’s continued rehab on his ankle:
“He’s doing well. He wants to be out there. He’s a competitor. I talked to him today. He’s a good teammate, and he’s working to get healthy.”
Murray participated some last week in the offense vs. defense portion of practice, leading up to the Dallas game. Gannon announced that Murray would start against the Cowboys, then recanted, telling the media that Brissett would get the start because Murray just wasn’t ready.
Brissett has played very well as this group’s starting quarterback. He threw for 320 yards, two touchdowns, plus a pick in a 31-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in a game the Cardinals held the lead late. That was followed by a narrow loss to the Green Bay Packers in which Brissett tossed for 279 yards with two touchdowns. Against Dallas, he had 261 yards with two touchdown passes plus a rushing touchdown.
Why did Gannon change his mind for the second week in a row?
Gannon told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday:
“Jacoby will start, and Kyler will keep working on his health. I do like what the offense is doing right now. We’ve operated well, and we will go from there.”
It wasn’t long after Gannon announced that Brissett would start that NFL analyst Adam Schefter tweeted out on Tuesday what may be some answers:
So, according to Schefty, Murray is not healed after all, and now could be down for 4-8 weeks? Is that the reason? Or did Gannon decide that Brissett was the better option and subsequently bench a healthy Murray? Somebody did point out that the next “Call of Duty” video game, “Black Ops 7,” will be released on November 14. Just sayin.
Schefter is a reliable source of NFL news and notes. He is accurate in most cases, and he tells the truth. But he is also a friend to numerous NFL executives. Could this be a PR situation instead of an actual medical issue?
By saying Murray “now has more time to heal,” does that really compute to him being a soft benching? Remember, he practiced last week and at one time was supposed to start against Dallas.
However, right after Schefter’s tweet, respected NFL analyst Howard Balzer also tweeted:
In the Cowboys game, Murray made the trip but was in street clothes along the sideline. So, it wasn’t like he suited up and could be the emergency QB. He grew up 45 miles from that stadium in Allen, Texas, and wanted to be back in it one more time. He has a 9-0-0 record in AT&T Stadium, going back to high school and college.
When did these doctors make this evaluation of Murray? It had to be post-Cowboys game because right after the Dallas win, Gannon had stated that Murray was his starting quarterback. Or did he mean when Murray was ruled healthy and ready to go?
Gannon added:
“Obviously, for him, it prevents him from being fully healthy to go play, and him, as the person that he is and the player that he is, yes. And you could look at other things, like this injury for other people might not, but he’s played through some things that other positions, if they have those, they can’t play with those because of what they’re asked to do.”
In any regard, in the three games in which Brissett has started, the offense has traveled up and down the field all game and scored points. Keeping him as the starter may validate the coaching staff’s decision, and hopefully, more victories will follow.
There are nine more games left on the schedule. The division is really tough, and nobody is eyeing a division title at this juncture. 10 wins will get a team in as a Wild Card seed, and in the NFL, anything can happen.
In 2011, the New York Football Giants were tied for the division lead with the Cowboys with identical 7-7-0 records and two games remaining. In the finale, the two teams met with 8-7-0 records. The Giants won with a 9-7-0 record, hosted a playoff game, then had to travel to play the #2 seed Green Bay Packers in a blizzard, then another road game against the #1 seed San Francisco 49ers to play the likes of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. The Giants defeated them all. Next up: the 18-0-0 New England Patriots, who they defeated 21-17.
It started with Arizona whipping the Cowboys. Now, on with an upset win over the Seahawks.
