11:40am: The Cardinals will explore trade options for Murray at the Combine this week, per OutKick’s Armando Salguero, who offers the Jets as a potential destination. With a weak quarterback draft class behind projected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza, a 29-year-old with three years left of a reasonable-priced contract could draw some interest on the trade market.
9:33am: This year’s round of Combine GM interviews generated an early refrain. This this week represents the GM-speak Super Bowl, and nothing seems to be off the table. Monti Ossenfort joined fellow GMs using this phrase by indicating the Cardinals are keeping their options open with Kyler Murray.
A subsequent report, however, brought an unexpected development. Ossenfort responded in the affirmative to a question about having talked to Murray after his injury-shortened 2025 season. But a source informed ESPN.com’s Josh Weinfuss no communication has taken place between GM and player yet this offseason.
Ossenfort indeed indicated “all options are on the table” at quarterback. No dialogue between Ossenfort and Murray through late February certainly points to the Cardinals moving toward a separation. Previous reports have pegged Arizona as hoping to move on via trade, but assumptions of a release have taken hold thus far.
Murray, 28, missed 12 games last season but has made 87 starts at QB for the Cards; only Jim Hart and Neil Lomax have topped that among passers in franchise history. Murray is Arizona’s longest-tenured QB1 since Lomax’s seven-plus-season run in the 1980s. While a January report did not close the door on the Cardinals running it back with Murray, a new chapter appears on tap.
It would behoove the Cardinals to get rid of Murray by March 15, the day $19.5MM of his 2027 base salary becomes guaranteed. Thanks to a player-friendly extension structure that brought early vesting dates, Murray is already guaranteed $36.8MM for next season. The Cardinals would surely have to pay down some of the eighth-year QB’s contract in a deal, but finding a taker would benefit their salary cap outlook.
Murray is owed nearly $23MM in base salary in 2026. The Cardinals convincing a team to take on part of that would create cap savings — even in a pre-June 1 swap. Were the Cardinals to cut Murray, they would almost definitely need to designate him as a post-June 1 release (when $54.7MM in dead money would be split over two offseasons). Like Russell Wilson in 2024 (or Tua Tagovailoa this year, in all likelihood), Murray would then be cut on Day 1 of the league year. That comes March 13, which would allow the Cardinals to avoid that $19.5MM 2027 guarantee.
The Ossenfort-Mike LaFleur tandem has kept matters close to the vest here, though a report connected the NFC West club to Malik Willis. The Cardinals will have the Dolphins, known Willis suitors after hiring ex-Packer staffers at GM and HC, outflanked in cap space for Willis — whose market appears promising but hazy due to his limited experience — but it is certainly premature to say the former Titans draftee-turned-Packer backup would be a better option than Murray.
While the Raiders are poised to draft Fernando Mendoza at No. 1, the Cardinals could circle back to one of the other options in this top-heavy class. But one season remains on Jacoby Brissett‘s contract, giving Arizona some options in the likely event Murray is done in the desert.
‘Murray, 28, missed 12 games last season but has made 87 starts at QB for the Cards; only Jim Hart and Neil Lomax have topped that among passers in franchise history. Murray is Arizona’s longest-tenured QB1 since Lomax’s seven-plus-season run in the 1980s…’
That’s the Bidwill’s ownership summary for you in a partial paragraph.
Seriously, terrible owners.
Not at all surprising St Louis didn’t want to pay for a new stadium for the losingest team in NFL history and a team that just continues to be run into the ground by ownership.
But things have been different in Arizona… don’t you remember that Bidwill traded in his trademark bowtie for a bolo tie??
🤣🤣🤣 Oh yeah totally different.
I will admit they were competitive for a short span with Kurt and have tried (albeit poorly) this past decade but the Bidwells are still running that franchise into the ground.
For every big free agent they pay, they trade away many high upside players so they won’t have to pay them.
What options?
Nobody is gonna trade for him.
“He never had the makings of an NFL QB”
– Uncle Junior
oh!
He’s realistically likely the best quarterback for this coming year that will be available for a needy team, not counting Mendoza. That doesn’t mean any fan base will be jazzed to get him.
Should be playing for the A’s. He would’ve thrived in Sacramento.
He has said in the past that baseball was his first love, and the only reason he did not go the baseball route he did not want to do the 8- and 10-hour bus rides through the minors. So, in other words, he did not want to pay his dues and work to get to the Major Leagues.
Murray has always wanted the instant gratification of the NFL, he wanted his money up front, and AZ Cardinals fell for it, a mini-me that cannot see over the OL, and only can play only in the shot gun, cannot stay in the pocket long enough to let his WR’s run their routes, cannot read a defense that well, only rolls out to see half the field, definitely not a complete QB. Cardinals won’t get squat for him, should just release him, he is not a leader on or off the field. Just release him take the hit on the the cap, and look for a real NFL QB.
Maybe a change of scenery ( all he can see now are the lineman’s backsides, because he’s so short) might do him good. All jokes aside, he might be better in Minnesota.
anyone have a bigger smile than billy beane with how this has all played out ?