After two games with Jacoby Brissett under center, the Cardinals are moving toward Kyler Murray‘s return. Mentioned before their bye Murray was likely to return in Week 9, Jonathan Gannon confirmed this is the plan.
The third-year Cardinals HC said (via ESPN.com’s Josh Weinfuss) the team is preparing for Murray to return to the lineup Monday night against the Cowboys. Murray has been battling a foot injury that, somewhat concerningly, was connected to a Lisfranc issue.
Being back after sitting two games represents a win for Murray given the Lisfranc mention; those injuries are certainly known to linger. The two-time Pro Bowler also has run into injuries regularly throughout his pro career. While Murray did miss three games in 2021 and was down for a bit during the 2022 season in which he suffered an ACL tear, this year marked the starter’s first set of absences since his mid-2023 return from that knee injury.
Brissett did well to keep the Cards in games against upper-crust opponents. Although the Cardinals lost to the Colts and Packers, both were narrow defeats. That may not be much consolation to Cardinals fans, as the team is riding a five-game run of one-score defeats. Brissett, however, accounted himself well in backup duty once again. The 10th-year veteran has also now made starts for seven NFL franchises, with his Arizona work following first-string summons in New England, Indianapolis, Miami, Cleveland, Washington and New England.
Working with Drew Petzing for the second time (after the current Cards OC was the Browns’ QBs coach in 2022), Brissett completed just more than 64% of his passes at 7.4 yards per throw. Murray carries a 68% completion rate but is only at 6.0 Y/A through six games. The dual-threat talent has not showcased the form he did during his Pro Bowl years (2020, 2021) since being placed in Petzing’s offense, and the Cardinals are 13-17 with Murray starting under Gannon.
Murray’s 2022 extension has already triggered a sizable 2026 guarantee; by remaining on Arizona’s roster this past March, Murray secured $32.84MM guaranteed of his $42.84MM 2026 compensation. If the Cardinals were to arrange a trade, Murray would count less than $18MM on their 2026 cap sheet. For now, Petzing and Co. will work on getting Murray on the same page with Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. The Cardinals will also be eligible to activate running back Trey Benson from IR beginning in Week 10, but Monday looms as a crucial contest considering the stretch of close losses defining Gannon’s third season.
Prior to Gannon announcing Murray is due back in Week 9, the Cardinals worked out three QBs — Kyle Trask, Logan Woodside and Jeff Driskel, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. Arizona has Kedon Slovis stationed as its QB3 on the active roster; no passer resides on the team’s practice squad.
A former second-round pick, Trask played two seasons as a Buccaneers third-stringer behind Tom Brady and Blaine Gabbert; he then lost a competition with Baker Mayfield in 2023. The Bucs re-signed Trask to a one-year, $2.79MM deal this offseason but released him in August. Trask has not landed anywhere since. Driskel’s career included an Arizona stopover, with the journeyman spending most of the 2023 season with the team.
Yawwwwnnn.