Kyler Murray has been sidelined since Week 5, and he will not play again this season. Naturally, speculation continues to swirl about the former No. 1 pick’s future in Arizona. 
Murray’s contract runs through 2028; more importantly, it includes $36.8MM in guarantees for next season. Suitors will of course not be enthused about taking on that figure in the event of a trade, and it would come as no surprise if the Cardinals were to retain salary to facilitate a swap. Even so, a large market may not exist in this case.
Multiple executives informed Jeff Howe of The Athletic (subscription required) Murray is viewed as having little or no trade value at this point. The two-time Pro Bowler underperformed when on the field in 2025, his seventh season as a Cardinal. Murray has largely avoided lengthy absences in his career, aside from his 2023 ACL tear and the current ailment which will keep him sidelined until the offseason. His latest injury will no doubt hinder Arizona’s ability to receive any substantial value in a trade.
The Cardinals beat the Dolphins to the punch here, with momentum toward a separation from Murray emerging weeks before the Tua Tagovailoa benching. It would surprise if Murray did not land somewhere with at least a chance to start next year, but he has struggled to reprise his early-career form.
Murray, 28, was also not playing especially well in Kliff Kingsbury‘s system before suffering an ACL tear in December 2022. A two-time original-ballot Pro Bowler (2020, 2021), Murray ranked 19th in QBR before his tear that season. He ranked 22nd in 2023 and saw his QBR and yards-per-attempt numbers (46.6, 6.0) drop to career-low figures in his five-game 2025. That said, Murray did place ninth in QBR last season. And the Cardinals’ 8-9 record in 2024 has suddenly aged pretty well.
That said, Murray has also missed 30 games due to injury. He came up as a shutdown candidate well before it was determined the Cards were sticking with journeyman Jacoby Brissett. While it is worth wondering if Murray would be ready to go now had the Cardinals not taken the direction they have, he has missed 10 contests this season.
The diminutive dual-threat performer has made 87 starts since the Cards became the rare team to draft first-round QBs in back-to-back years. He commanded a five-year, $230.5MM extension — a deal framed around the Browns’ Deshaun Watson re-up (albeit without guarantees rivaling the embattled Cleveland arm) — in summer 2022. The extension featuring the early guarantee triggers has proven beneficial to the former top-10 MLB draftee. The Cardinals will need to move on before the fifth day of the 2026 league year, a date that brings another $19.5MM guarantee — this one covering 2027 money.
A handful of teams, per usual, will be looking for a quarterback soon. That should give Murray a chance. The Vikings and Jets surfaced as potentially interested parties weeks ago. If the Cardinals truly do not have a buyer, they would eat $53.26MM in dead money, a figure which would surely be halved via a post-June 1 designation. Tagovailoa’s dead cap hit ($99.2MM) dwarfs this, and both the Jets and Saints took on this much in parting with Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr this year.
A free agent market would certainly emerge if Murray were jettisoned via release, but even considering the seven-year veteran’s inconsistency and injury issues, the QB supply-and-demand cycle will undoubtedly lead to teams showing some trade interest. With the mid-March vesting date, we still have a ways to go before finality on this topic surfaces.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
Shocking.
Colts
Conditional 4th
Becomes a 3rd if you reach playoffs
2nd if you win AFC champ game
1st if you win superbowl
With Taylor Pittman Pierce Downs and that oline you don’t need much from Murray. Plus it’s a cheaper option I believe since Jones will command a Baker Mayfield type contract probably a little less coming off injury but still in the 25-30 range
I dunno. The Colts need a quarterback, but do they need Kyler Murray?
The offense has looked infinitely better with a quarterback who can make his reads and go through his progressions. Rivers can barely throw the ball anymore, but he’s actually played really well in these last two games. Jones doesn’t have the read ability that Rivers does, but he’s managed the offense very well and done exactly what was asked of him.
Murray has big play capability, but the game manager aspect of pro football has been the part that he’s been worst at. He hasn’t put in the time, as rumor has it, to excel at that. He’s not going to read a defense like Rivers, and will play too much in these last two shotgun to adequately do his recap reads as is. I just don’t see him as a fit in Indy. A team who can and will utilize an athletic big play QB would probably be a better fit, if someone wants him.
I agree. Colts need a Mac Jones way more than a Kyler style qb.
I wonder if the A’s still hold his rights?
They actually do. It was a rare situation where a drafting team actually signed the pick but allowed him to pursue a different opportunity. A’s drafted him, signed him, and allowed him to play college football.
Trade him to FaZe Clan
Lmao COD seems to be the only thing he really excels at so this could work.
hes not good at CoD either, he has a negative K/D.
With all of the Kyler Murray hype, is there really any surprise that he has not had an eye opening season?
Hey, is that headline a joke? He won’t generate a Large Trade Market. Is that a short joke? Just because he has tiny baby hands and uses a step stool to see over the offensive line doesn’t mean he’s short!!
Just because he goes up on women instead of down on them doesn’t mean he’s short either
Keep drafting these run-first QBs and continue to fail. Lamar is the closing thing to a real quarterback amongst these guys and he can’t win $%@#.
When was he a run-first QB? He, Patrick Mahomes, Caleb Williams, and Baker Mayfield all came from the same offense in college, and it was a prolific spread passing offense.
Also, Jalen Hurts, and last I checked, he’s the defending Super Bowl MVP.
Murray should be looking north. Doug Flutie wasn’t exactly a giant and he had a great career in the CFL.
He’d be better off going to the A’s.
Idk, he hasn’t seen live pitching in nearly a decade. Hitting baseballs is a hard business, I doubt his ability or anyone’s ability to be able to recover from such a long layoff
The guy is made of glass and isn’t that good.
Murrary is just too short, too fragile for nfl, he is a good baseball player, maybe he should go,That, .
josh rosen still holding out hope for a second chance in the desert
Another in a long line of an overrated running quarterback. Overpaid overhyped never won anything
Am a true running quarterback that’s won the Super Bowl……………………….Exactly!!!!!
He runs four or five times a game on average. It’s not a big part of his game. I wonder if some of you even watch football with some of these comments.
If jets can’t land first overall pick I say make a move for Kyler. He’s an upgrade from fields and Tyrod and is still young and experienced.
He’ll be a Raider
Not saying Kyler has any positive trade value, but I think there should be teams interested in him as a “change of scenery” option. There’d obviously be a little more involved but a Tua-Kyler swap makes sense if they can get the owed money equaled out. If the Jets or Raiders can’t get a QB in the draft, then a swap there could also make sense like Fields or Geno going back to the Cardinals to help match the money.
I think they’re going to have to eat his cap hit and release him. His best bet is to take the Baker Mayfield rehabilitation route. McVay picking him up if Stafford hangs it up would be quite the plot twist. I think he’d do well with him if he can stay healthy.
I don’t think that the trade market will be that large, either. Probably billed at 5’11, but I’d guess closer to 5’07-5’08.
The Jets would make sense. He’s always been more of a passer than Fields, even though he runs so much. Plus it might help him to play in a bigger market with more scrutiny and expectations.
I’d probably make the Cards eat a SIGNIFICANT amount of his contract though for sure.
That’s comparing apples and oranges. Fields had 1600 yards rushing one year. Kyler Murray runs less than Drake Maye and Josh Allen. It might just be the Cardinals. They’re not exactly a model franchise. I don’t think trading for him at that salary would be wise either though.
I don’t know what happened. I was not a fan of him coming out, but it was undeniable, before he got hurt near the end of 2022, he was a top five, maybe top three QB in the league. He was electric. He’s never come close to that level again. It was his third year in the league, so you can’t blame it on DCs got more tape on him and adjusted. It’s like a player who had a bad injury who never recovered, but that’s not the case as the slide started before the ACL, and he played relatively fine last year, just never reaching that high of the first two thirds of 2022.