Although Oklahoma quarterback — and Oakland Athletics first-round pick — Kyler Murray has committed to pursuing a career in MLB, there are signs he could be positioning himself for an NFL tenure, as well. For one, Oklahoma recently submitted Murray’s name to the Collegiate Advisory Committee for draft feedback, according to Kalyn Kahler of Sports Illustrated.
Typically, per Kahler, schools will only submit their players’ names at the request of said player, but Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley declined to give any specifics about his team’s process. And asking the CAC for feedback doesn’t tie Murray to the NFL — it’s simply a request for scouts to evaluate his chances of becoming an early pick in 2019.
Still, the mere fact that Murray is still — at least tangentially — poking around in NFL circles is notable, especially given his agent Scott Boras’ recent comments at the MLB Winter Meetings. “When you win the Heisman Trophy, you’re going to have a lot of information come to you and be looked at,” Boras said, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. “All I know is that Kyler has a tremendous opportunity to be a great baseball player. He knows that.”
That’s a notably softer tone from Boras, who previously — and strongly — indicated Murray would only pursue an MLB career. On top of that that, Murray’s contract with the A’s includes a provision that would require him to pay back or forgo a large part of his signing bonus if he decides to play in the NFL, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB Network. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, such a clause is hardly surprising, but Murray could make much more via a rookie NFL contract that he will under his $4.6MM deal with the Athletics.
This dude is amazing. Absolutely amazing.
They say that about every Heisman winner but very few ever manage to live up to the hype.
The man signed a contract, made a promise. Of course, that doesn’t mean anything anymore…..
Never did. From does contract litigation, United States courts expect that if it’s financially beneficial for you to breach, including any penalty included in the contract to breach, you can and should breach. That’s why there are no punitive damages in breach of contract cases, it’s expected you will do so if it becomes worth it to you, and the most you may win if someone breaches their contract with you is the benefit of the bargain.
*From someone who does contract litigation
teams cut players under contract all the time. players need to do what’s best for them, period.
So did John Elway.. and Russell Wilson.. there’s a lot of NFL guys who have signed MLB contracts. But because u wanna troll ur gunna hate.
Uh, the contract he signed stipulated what would happen if he pursued an NFL career instead of playing for the A’s…
He’d have to pay back the money the A’s paid him.
If he goes to the NFL and doesn’t pay back the money, THEN you can claim his promise doesn’t mean anything.
I, for one, hope he picks the NFL over MLB SOLELY so Scott Boras would have to pay back his cut of Murray’s signing bonus from the A’s.
Nfl may have more ludicrous rookie deals, but the mlb is far superior when it comes to later on as seen with the Bryce/manny situation
And guarenteed contracts. NFL teams will abandon guys in a second too. Unless your a QB you wont last though a long deal
Lifestyles of the rich and famous. If that’s us we get buried in court.
No, you don’t. You breach, you have to give it back. That’s it. A court can’t award more than that.
He might make more right away in the NFL, but baseball has the potential to be more lucrative for longer with fully guaranteed contracts.
And less potential for serious injury
See Samardzjia, Jeff… hard for me to believe that Murray would go in the top 3 rounds as a QB. He’s smaller than Mayfield, Wilson and Brees. And a QB playing part time will be hard to begin with.
Ask Doug Flutie how much bias there is against undersized QB’s in the NFL. He was a Heisman winner too but had to go to Canada to prove his worth.
It’s not bias, it’s the truth. Just because one 5’10 qb made one pro bowl appearance in the history of the nfl doesn’t mean short qbs are successful in the nfl lmaoooo.
The bias against undersized QBs precludes them ever getting an opportunity to prove whether they can be successful or not.
Idk why this is even a story. No nfl team would even draft him at his height. This speculation is 100% media driven. He was also drafted high enough he’ll make more off his mlb rookie deal than nfl which is usually not the case, and all guaranteed.