NFL Insider Breaks Down Kyler Murray's Health and Future

All eyes are on the Arizona Cardinals and what they'll do with quarterback Kyler Murray moving into the future, both immediately and in the long term.

Murray recently hit injured reserve and now takes a back seat to Jacoby Brissett in Arizona's passing pecking order.

NFL insider Tom Pelissero recently appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and dove into Murray's injury:

What's Going On With Kyler Murray?

"If he comes back sooner than when he's 100%, even going out there and practicing, there's some level of risk. If you go out there and play a game and it's not fully healed, you're at a greater risk of a setback," Pelissero said.

"So the reason he was practicing in recent weeks was to keep his arm live, just to see if he could be able to take those steps forward. Then what Jonathan Gannon said publicly, I believe it was on Monday, reflected the same thing that he had told Kyler Murray privately, which was: 'Hey, we're going to go with Jacoby right now. We're going to ride the hot hand.'

"Well, at that point, does it make any sense for Kyler Murray, at less than 100% and presumably not getting any reps during the week, to try to just push himself forward at less than 100% and go suit up as the backup? And then maybe get thrown into a situation where he can't run, he can't move the way that he's supposed to, and isn't getting any reps and then looks bad, or, even worse, hurts himself?

"Once that happened, and there were some other pieces of this that kind of played into it. It just made sense to put Kyler on IR and allow him to get fully healthy."

It's likely a combination of Brissett playing well and Murray's injury not fully healed that led to the decision to place the former top pick on the shelf for at least four games.

Arizona's offense has looked much stronger with Brissett's presence, scoring 27 points in consecutive games and consistently moving the ball, which was a struggle with Murray.

What Happens After Kyler Murray Returns?

This is the big question - when Murray is healthy, where do the Cardinals go from there?

"We'll see. These next four games now that he's going to be on IR, they could go three and one. If they are, they may still well ride with Jacoby Brissett and maybe Kyler is dressing as the backup. If they go one and three, they're going to have decisions to make about exactly what they do with Kyler returning, and if it even makes sense to put Kyler on the field at that point," Pelissero said.

"What we do know is Kyler is due $40 million fully guaranteed in 2026, another $20 million in 2027 converts to a full guarantee if and when he's on the roster the fifth day of the league year in March. In other words, they are tied to Kyler Murray with fully guaranteed money into next year and then potentially into 2027."

As we've seen with the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson, teams will bite the bullet and move on from a quarterback, even if it costs them heavily on the books.

This feels like Brissett's job to lose at this point despite Arizona heavily backing Murray up.

What's Kyler Murray's Future Look Like?

"It's TBD on the future," Pelissero added.

"There's not been in-depth discussions about this at this point. I think it's fair to say that his future with the Cardinals is in some doubt at this point, but we'll see how these next couple of months go before all the options sort of crystallize for exactly what direction this heads."

That makes sense, as the Cardinals have to sort through a whole lot before reaching a final conclusion.

However, at this point in time, it sure feels like Murray is on the way out.

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