The Arizona Cardinals have not had the best luck with quarterbacks since the days of Jim Hart and Neil Lomax. And that was a long time ago. Of course, having Kurt Warner paid off, and for a short time,
Carson Palmer did well. But since Palmer left after the 2017 season, the job has had its issues.
Josh Rosen never panned out. Matt Leinart was supposed to resurrect the franchise. Drew Stanton, Max Hall. In 2012 alone, the franchise started four different guys: John Skelton, Kevin Kolb, Ryan Lindley, and Brian Hoyer.
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This all changed when Kyler Murray was selected first overall in the 2019 NFL draft. Finally, an athlete who could throw darts and could gain yardage with his legs. Forget about his height. Fran Tarkenton did the job. So did Drew Brees and Russell Wilson. The Cleveland Browns’ starting QB is Dillon Gabriel, who is just 5’-11” tall.
Murray has played well, he has looked bad, and like quite a few NFL players, he has had his share of injuries. It is a violent sport. Last year was the first time he was able to start every regular-season game since his first two years in the league. That was encouragement going into this season. None of this business about trading for guys like Josh Dobbs or bringing in Colt McCoy.
Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort did bring in an inexperienced backup this year when he inked Jacoby Brissett back on March 15. Brissett has been the poster child for experienced career backup QBs and should be in one of those insurance commercials where they sub in the guy as the backup family member.
Brissett has 54 NFL starts and has played in 90 games. In 2022, he was the fill-in for Deshaun Watson of the Browns while he was on an 11-game suspension. Brissett has just two seasons out of 10 seasons where he was the bona fide starter.
And as planned, he started this past weekend against the Indianapolis Colts while Murray was nursing a knee injury.
How did he look? Pretty damn good.
The 32-year-old threw for 320 yards and tossed two touchdowns, plus a really stupid interception that took away points and negated a turnover. His QB rating was 89.2. Most times, he was able to go through progressions pretty quickly knowing that the offensive line is on a clock and the protection is not going to last forever, and he did not ditch the pocket as much as Murray does. He was flushed from the pocket and had 19 yards rushing, so he still has his legs.
Oh, and he’s 6’-4” and a beefy 235 pounds.
Murray has had seven years. His win-loss record as the starting quarterback is 38-48-1. He will throw a pick once in a while, but his touchdown numbers are always double that of the interceptions. Despite his ability to run, Murray has been sacked 195 times. Granted, he has never had that “elite” offensive line that the best quarterbacks in the league end up with.
With Brissett being inserted, this came on the heels of a lot of team drama. RB Emari Demarcado’s knucklehead fumble for a touchback, dropped passes, head coach Jonathan Gannon’s huge fine, three straight losses, plus Murray’s injury that nagged all week.
That is quite a bit to ask the backup to come in amidst all the turmoil and bad press. How would this Cardinals offense respond to him?
Actually, this offense fought all game long. They were in it to the final play, which just happened to be an overthrow by Brissett, even though McBride was mugged. They had a chance to pull the game out. Drives were finished with points, most notably, three touchdowns and two field goals. Arizona was close to scoring 30 points.
The offense moved up and down the field all game long and kept their defense on the sideline. An 11-play drive, another for 13, 10 plays, nine plays, and another for 10. This is what respectable NFL offenses that succeed look like. Only two punts all game. Like, what?
Now, this wasn’t the New York Jets or Las Vegas Raiders the Cardinals were facing. The Colts came in 4-1-0 and in first place of their division. They are a really good team with a really good run game and a stout defense.
The Cardinals played with desperation. Brissett threw several passes into tight windows and utilized TE Trey McBride like he should be used – often. The toss Brissett threw to WR Greg Dortch for the touchdown was simply a matter of seeing that a linebacker was covering a 4.49 receiver.
The experience of Brissett showed.
Indianapolis finds ways to beat teams, and they are a very good offensive team. But Brissett kept the Cardinals in the game and had the lead as the fourth quarter began, with just over nine minutes left to play.
And the Cardinals were able to keep drives going even though their ace receiver Marvin Harrison left the game with a concussion. Brissett then began to find Zay Jones more, and both Elijah Higgins and Michael Wilson became involved. In all, nine pass receivers caught balls. That is a great example of spreading the ball around.
The question then is asked: Why did Arizona’s passing game look so much better with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback than with Kyler Murray?
There were so many throws in this game that got huge chunks of real estate, all game long. Six passing plays were for 20+ yards, plus another completion to RB Michael Carter for 16.
Brissett threw so many passes in tight windows. Cardinal fans don’t usually see that from Murray.
Is this the year for Murray that he either shows out, dominates the offense, makes the Pro Bowl, or he is on his way out the door? In his five games, he has had three games where he threw for over 200 yards. Brissett goes under center in one contest and throws for 320 against a really good team.
In NFL terms, players are who they are in Year 6. This is Murray’s seventh. We basically know what to expect on gameday. He has three years left on his contract. This year, Murray will earn a base salary of $18,000,000, a roster bonus of $11,900,000, and a workout bonus of $1,857,500, while carrying a cap hit of $43,325,677 and a dead cap value of $100,228,854.
Murray has talent, which is not denied. But it seems he has settled into a middle-of-the-pack signalcaller. Which there is no shame in that, with the fact that there are only 32 NFL starting quarterbacks in the world.
At what point do the Cardinals look at the balance of his humongous contract and decide that the Kyler Murray experiment has reached the end?
The season is not lost. But a glance at the schedule doesn’t do the Cardinals any favors. It is brutal. But good teams find ways to win. Arizona could quite easily be 6-0-0 right now. They were winning or tied with about nine minutes left in every single game, and did not close.
And yes, Brissett lost his first start with the Cardinals. Even though they lost the game, it didn’t feel like they were not in the game until the final down. They completed longer passes. They fought. They finished drives.
The offense just felt different.
