Why the Arizona Cardinals made Kyler Murray one of the NFL’s highest-paid players

As reported Thursday afternoon, the Arizona Cardinals signed quarterback Kyler Murray to a five-year contract extension, making the passer one of the highest-paid players in the NFL. Under the terms of the deal, Murray will earn $30 million in the first year, $69 million over two years and $106.15 million over three years, keeping him signed in Arizona through 2028.

Over the past few months, speculation over Murray’s status in Arizona was one of the hotter topics in NFL circles. From reading into Murray scrubbing his social media, to the quarterback skipping the start of OTAs, every move made by the quarterback was put through the prism of what it meant for his status with the Cardinals.

Now, we know what his status truly is.

The question now becomes, why did the Cardinals make this decision, and what does it mean about their future. In many ways, Arizona truly did not have a ton of options. The economics of the NFL today indicate that when you draft a young quarterback you build around him while he is on his rookie deal, and hope he plays at a high enough level to warrant the long-term deal.

Over his time in the desert, Murray has shown enough to secure that deal. And what he has shown comes down to two words.

Explosive plays.

Our own Doug Farrar has argued for the past few seasons that the NFL today is all about explosive plays. You have to create them on offense, and you have to eliminate them as much as possible on defense.

Murray’s ability to generate explosive plays for the Cardinals is a huge reason for this deal.

Of course, when it comes to Murray his ability to create outside of the pocket comes to mind first, and certainly there is more than enough evidence of this trait. Take this play against the Detroit Lions, that finds Murray fighting in the pocket as long as possible before vacating the pocket and rolling to his right, where he finds Christian Kirk working across the field in a scramble drill setting:

Another example is this play against the Los Angeles Rams, where Murray beats pressure — and a blitz — with his legs before finding A.J. Green downfield, late in the play:

Then there is Murray’s ability to generate explosive plays with his legs. His skill-set as a runner is another weapon for the Arizona offense, which forces defenses to make difficult choices pre-snap. Plays like this quarterback draw against the Dallas Cowboys force defenses to account for him prior to the play, or pay a price after the snap:

Of course, scramble drills and designed quarterback runs are just part of the game in the NFL. Generating explosive plays from the pocket is still a huge part of playing the position. Over his time in the NFL, this is perhaps where we have seen the most growth from Murray.

According to charting data from Pro Football Focus, Murray was one of the best deep passers in the NFL last season, posting an Adjusted Completion Percentage of 54.9% on throws over 20 yards in 2021, second only to Tua Tagovailoa. On those 71 attempts — which was sixth-most in the NFL last season — Murray completed 35 passes for 1,125 yards and nine touchdowns, against just three interceptions.

While some of those throws came with Murray outside of the pocket, some did not. You also saw plays like this one against the Indianapolis Colts, where the quarterback stood in the pocket in the face of pressure and delivered a perfect throw on a go route to Green:

Or you can take this example, which finds Murray beating edge pressure by climbing the pocket, and dropping in a perfect throw to Kirk as he crossed from right-to-left deep downfield:

Perhaps the best example of his growth as a passer comes on this play against the Green Bay Packers. Facing a third-and-long deep in his own territory, Murray works through his reads from his own end zone, first scanning frontside to read out a mesh concept before getting to Green on the backside dig:

Murray’s ability to generate explosive plays in a variety of ways — whether from the pocket, off of structure or with his legs — makes him a difficult player to defend, and one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.

In a league predicated upon creating explosive plays, it also made him one of its highest-paid players.