Kliff Kingsbury actually says Kyler Murray might not start Week 1 over Brett Hundley
Note to coaches: Stop with the coach-speak. Nobody believes you anyway, and it’s insulting to all fans.
Did the idea that Kyler Murray might not start Week 1 for the Arizona Cardinals ever occur to you? Of course not. The Cardinals drafted Murray to run Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, then traded Josh Rosen to the Miami Dolphins. To be clear, if Murray doesn’t start Week 1, something has gone very, very wrong.
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But yet, Kingsbury wasn’t ready to commit to that when he was asked on “The Jim Rome Show.”
“We’ll see. We’re still working through all those things,” Kingsbury told Rome. “We have Brett Hundley here, who we’re very excited about. We’ll see where that kind of goes.”
Brett Hundley? Raise your hand if you knew he was Murray’s backup.
(UPDATE: This was so weird, Cardinals general manager Steve Keim went on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Thursday afternoon and said with no doubt that Murray would start Week 1 ... we all knew that Steve.)
Kliff Kingsbury won’t commit to Kyler Murray starting Week 1
Football coaches say and do odd things sometimes. There’s this notion that you can’t anoint anyone a starter, even if everyone in the world understands the situation. Kingsbury, who has never coached in the NFL and was an unusual hire after he was fired following his 35-40 record at Texas Tech, presumably just doesn’t want to say the wrong thing.
But it’s OK to admit that Murray will start Week 1. Everyone knows. Hundley probably knows too. Hundley has a career 67.9 rating. The Cardinals did not draft Murray, giving up on Rosen after one year, for him to voluntarily sit even one week. There’s really no “we’ll see” about this, unless the Cardinals are really overthinking this. The notion that No. 1 overall picks need to sit is entirely outdated, unless you’re Jeff Fisher’s staff with Jared Goff.
Once again: If Murray isn’t the Week 1 starter, he’s hurt or something has gone terribly wrong. We all know what the pecking order is.
Kingsbury has known Murray since high school
The rest of Kingsbury’s interview with Rome touched on various subjects, and thankfully no more Hundley discussion. Kingsbury said the first time he saw Murray was when Murray was a sophomore in high school, and Kingsbury was out recruiting.
“You knew you were watching something special, something different,” Kingsbury told Rome. “At every level, he has proven it.”
We know how it all worked out. Kingsbury, who said last season that he would draft Murray first overall in the NFL if he could, got to do just that after the Cardinals hired him.
“A little bit like the universe conspired in some ways to have that happen,” Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury got the quarterback he wanted. And no matter what he says, Murray isn’t going to be sitting behind Hundley. At least, that better not be the plan, for the Cardinals’ sake.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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