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Kyler Murray was a rookie in 2019.
He won the 2019 Offensive Rookie of the Year, he was the catalyst for an offensive turnaround for the Arizona Cardinals that was one of the best in NFL history from 2018 to 2019.
He gives the Cardinals and their fans something to be excited about moving forward.
Kyler Murray was also the 13th best quarterback in the NFL as a rookie according to the NFL.com quarterback index.
To explain the index check out the article, but here is a small explainer:
NFL.com editors Ali Bhanpuri, Tom Blair, Gennaro Filice and Dan Parr created a composite ranking of all 57 quarterbacks, focusing on who had the best 2019 season, playoffs included. Past performances and future projections were not taken into account; rather, this list is meant to reflect where each QB stood in 2019 alone.
Kyler Murray was the 13th best quarterback in the NFL as a rookie and those in front of him should give Cardinals fans something to be excited about.
Here were the top 12:
T1. Lamar Jackson
T1. Patrick Mahomes
3. Russell Wilson
4. Drew Brees
6. Ryan Tannehill
7. Aaron Rodgers
T8. Kirk Cousins
T8. Matthew Stafford
10. Carson Wentz
11. Dak Prescott
12. Matt Ryan
That brings us to Kyler Murray and what the panel had to say about Murray thus far:
Individual Rank: Bhanpuri: 14 | Blair: 13 | Filice: 14 | Parr: 15
2019 regular season stats: 16 games | 64.4 pct | 3,722 pass yds | 6.9 ypa | 20 pass TD | 12 INT | 544 rush yds | 4 rush TD | 2 fumbles lost
Blair: It’s actually kind of encouraging that Murray didn’t just cruise to the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Maybe going through some bumps in 2019 (including seven games with a sub-80 passer rating) helped prepare him for when the difficulty level ramps up — along with the stakes — in 2020.
Murray is already in the top half of starters and was in the top ¼ of quarterbacks who started a game in 2019.
The sky seems to be the limit for Murray.
This is going to be a fun ride.