Can Kingsbury And Murray Revive The Arizona Cardinals?

The NFL preseason is over, the regular season is finally here and now, all the talking is over. The results of last year don’t mean anything, from college to the NFL. It’s time for teams to put their money where their mouth is.

The Arizona Cardinals have spent this offseason redefining themselves and going all-in on their new offensive core. The team hired Kliff Kingsbury as head coach and selected Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the first overall pick in the draft. Clearly, the team is focused on fixing its broken offense but are Kingsbury and Murray the ones who can do it?

It was less than four years ago when the Cardinals made it to the NFC Championship game and a little bit more than a decade since their only Super Bowl appearance. The team has fallen drastically since then and a lot of it has to do with the failure at the quarterback position. The Cardinals have failed to find suitable replacements for quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer, the two men who’ve led them into the playoffs. The team has gone through many quarterbacks to find the successor, all to no avail.

That job has now fallen on the shoulders of Murray, the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner. Murray was electric at Oklahoma and scored 54 total touchdowns. Throughout that season, Murray showed off his blazing speed and his cannon for an arm that can drop dimes all across the field.

However, that was in the college level, we don’t know if he can replicate that success over. We’ve seen plenty of top college players flounder in the NFL. During preseason football, Murray showed some promise but playing under a vanilla offense and for a few drives, we didn’t see that game-breaking talent. Finally, there hasn’t been a quarterback of his stature that has succeed in the NFL, the closest being Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. His size didn’t slow him down in college and it hasn’t slowed down Wilson who has won a Super Bowl his second season. Murray will have a lot to prove his rookie season but I’d argue his coach has more to prove.

Kingsbury is an interesting hire for multiple reasons. While his Air Raid offense is praised for breaking through defenses, his defense have been decimated by opposing teams. He’s also never won more than eight games in a season and he’s had talent surrounding him, mainly MVP Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Furthermore, Arizona didn’t pluck Kingsbury from his gig in Texas Tech, he was fired and then hired by USC to be the offensive coordinator. He wasn’t even going to be a head coach until Arizona called. Those are concerning issues but Kingsbury has a strong offensive mind. Hiring Vance Joseph as his defensive coordinator is a good step to help his defense out. If he’s able to rebuild the offense and let his defensive coaches do what they do best, this could work.

So can Kingsbury and Murray revive the Cardinals? Talent wise, Murray has no reason not to work in this day and age of the NFL. Another positive is the fact that the Air Raid offense is similar to the one he’s played under for most of his life. He seemingly has the right demeanor for a franchise quarterback and the Cardinals believe in him. Kingsbury has a bit of baggage from his time as at Texas Tech. He was fired for failing to get the team over the hump and he wasn’t even looked at for a head coach job until this one. We don’t know if Kingsbury will be able to out-coach guys like Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, Bill Belichick and others.

What we do know is these two are perfect fits for each other and that alone can change the situation for any team. If a quarterback-coach tandem is able to get the best out of each other, then they’re able to get the most out of their teams. As the brain and arm for the offense, the sky is the limit with these two. The situation looks a lot worst if it’s Kingsbury inheriting a quarterback that doesn’t fit his offense or if Murray went to a defensive minded coach. They have the offensive talent and knowledge to make it work, the belief in each other is there and the league is built on the passing game. We won’t know until the team plays but if I was a Cardinals fan, I’d be extremely excited for this core.