Kyler Murray will be 'stressed out, mentally' in Cardinals' plan to get him up to speed

INDIANAPOLIS — Kyler Murray may or may not be ready to play quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals at the start of the 2023 season. The simple truth is, nobody at this point really knows or can put a legitimate or definitive timeline on his return.

Ready or not, though, new head coach Jonathan Gannon promised the fifth-year pro is going to be tutored, drilled, and so thoroughly grilled about the team’s new offense that, “He will be getting stressed out, mentally, I know that.”

There’s a new standard in Arizona, Gannon proclaimed. Even if Murray won’t be able to fully participate on the field during offseason workouts or training camp as he continues to rehab from ACL surgery, Gannon and his newly appointed offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing, have a plan for the franchise QB to get completely up to speed.

If you remember that pesky “independent study” clause that was written into Murray’s new $230.5 million contract extension this past season that ultimately was retracted, you probably have an idea of where this is going.

Though everyone in charge of the Cardinals, including team owner Michael Bidwill, have had nothing but glowing reviews of how hard Murray has attacked his rehab program, it’s going to be all about the classroom and complete and competent study habits from Murray moving forward.

“A lot of that is going to come from the meeting rooms,” Petzing said this past week upon being asked how to get Murray prepared without yet being able to move around and learn it on the ground. “Certainly, I expect him to still be involved in the meetings and the walk-throughs. We’ll meet with him, and he puts in time to make sure he’s ready to go. A lot of it may be more oriented to the classroom, whether it’s quizzes or watching tapes or asking questions.

“He’s been extremely engaged even these few, couple days when we’re really not talking a lot of football. I think he’s ready to go, he’s champing at the bit, so it’s something that I fully trust him to be able to grasp and understand the offense, even though he’s not going to get the physical reps in training camp.”

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Right then, Gannon jumped in to offer his own explanation of the Murray dynamic. The loudest voice in the organization wasn’t about to let there be any debate on the matter.

“What I want our players to know is that when we’re in meetings, they’re going to be very interactive,” Gannon said, adding, “Just because it’s not a competitive environment in the meeting room, our meeting rooms will be pretty competitive. We will hold a standard for how we do those things in the meeting room.

“They will be in front of their peers in what I call ‘hot spots’ and they will be on the spot with certain things. But the meeting room, for us, will be a full-time job so even though (Murray) is not on the field, he will be getting stressed out, mentally, I know that.”

Murray hasn’t been made available to speak with reporters since he tore his ACL and suffered meniscus damage in his right knee during a non-contact scramble on the third play of a Week 14 Monday night home loss to the Patriots.

He was in the front row during Gannon’s introductory news conference upon being hired as Kliff Kingsbury’s replacement, however, and he’s been rehabbing regularly at the team’s Tempe training facility.

Gannon, the former defensive coordinator for the Eagles, noted Murray has even been doing some late-night rehabbing there. One night this past week, he said, he was leaving the facility around 9 o’clock, noticed a fancy car parked right next to his. So, he walked back inside and found out it was Murray doing some evening training on his own.

“He’s been very eager to attack his rehab the way he needs to attack it to get back to being him,” Gannon said of the former Offensive Rookie of the Year and two-time Pro Bowl selection, adding when asked for a timeline of Murray’s return, “Whenever Kyler is fully healthy to play, that’s when he’ll play.”

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Petzing, the Cardinals’ first-time play-caller who joins the Cardinals following one season as quarterbacks coach of the Browns and has also coached tight ends and wide receivers with Cleveland and Minnesota, said Murray’s immobility “creates some unique challenges” for the next multiple months.

That’s the nature of the NFL, though, according to the 35-year-old Petzing, who said, “No matter what year you’re going into, there’s going to be something you have to handle and deal with, so it’s something we are going to work through together as a staff and we’re going to put our guys in the best position to win when the fall comes.”

For the Cardinals to start winning games in the short term, assuming Murray isn’t ready for the first few weeks of the regular season or longer, the team must identify tangible replacements at quarterback. New General Manager Monti Ossenfort has said the team will turn over every stone to improve the roster, particularly at the QB position, whether it’s through free agency or a possible trade.

He has yet to say, nor has he been asked, if the Cardinals would consider drafting a quarterback to help fill the gap, although that idea seems unlikely, even with the team in Indianapolis this week for the NFL scouting combine.

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Veteran backup Colt McCoy, 36, is under contract for one more year and although he recently underwent an unspecified offseason surgical procedure, apparently to his wrist on his throwing hand, he remains a viable secondary option.

But so does someone like free-agent-to-be Jacoby Brissett, 30, a seven-year pro whom Petzing worked with this past season as the Browns’ starting QB as Cleveland waited for Deshaun Watson to return from an NFL-imposed suspension.

Brissett completed 64 percent of his passes in 11 starts last season and his work with Petzing during an uneven situation drew positive feedback among coaches and scouts around the league. The results weren’t always there, but the production was somewhat impressive.

“Yeah, and it’s been great for Kyler to hear that, too, how they navigated that,” Gannon said. “Absolutely. We definitely talked about that and the process that was put in place in Cleveland. Now, Arizona is different. It was a good, little bit of a blueprint to say, ‘Hey, this is what we did with our guys in Cleveland, and this is how we can proceed with Kyler.’

“The experience (Petzing) went through with that in Cleveland this (past) year definitely was a positive.”

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Petzing didn’t want to put too much focus on his work with Brissett or Watson, for that matter, but did say, “I think it speaks to the adaptability and it speaks to being able to adjust regardless of the circumstances. You’ve got to find a plan, put a plan together to make sure multiple people are ready to go.”

“Rarely,” he added, “do the first 11 you enter the field with in September end the season in January, so you’ve got to be ready to adjust and certainly the experience last year taught me a lot how to do that and I’m certainly going to use that knowledge here in Arizona.”

Though Gannon already has publicly stated he envisions Murray operating less out of the shotgun formation and more under center, one thing Petzing doesn’t want to take away or limit is Murray’s ability to scramble and run for big plays. When Murray is able to do that at full strength, the coaches will ask him and design plays for him to do just that.

“He’s certainly a mobile quarterback and that’s one of the things that has made him real dangerous to defend,” Petzing said. “One of the things you hear us talk about it is, ‘How do we make things hard on the defense?’ And anytime you can utilize something that a player does well or above average like he does, it’s going to create that indecision of, ‘Hey, can I really call that defense? Can I take that chance knowing that if I miss it could be a big play?’

“So, I certainly want to continue to see that be a big part of his game and I don’t expect that to change. It’s been something he’s really leaned on his entire career and really has had a lot of success with.”

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals have a plan for Kyler Murray to pick up new offense