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Cardinals coach and general manager give different answers when asked if Kyler Murray will start in Week 1
During an interview with Jim Rome on CBS Sports Network Wednesday, Kingsbury wasn't quite ready to commit to Murray when he was asked if the rookie would be his starting quarterback for the Cardinals' opener in September.
"We'll see," Kingsbury said. "We're still working through all those things. We have Brett Hundley here, who we're very excited about, but we'll see where that kind of goes."
Kingsbury might be "excited" about Hundley, but it doesn't seem that Keim feels the same way. During an interview on "The Rich Eisen Show" earlier this week, Keim didn't have to think twice when he was asked if Murray would be the team's opening day starter.
"Yes," the Cardinals general manager said. "We didn't draft him one overall to ride the pine. I know it's a lot to put on his back, but that's why we drafted him. He's a fierce competitor and that's what he did at Oklahoma this year. He put the team on his back, they didn't have a great defense and he knew he had to score on almost every series to give them a chance to win and I sort of like the chances there."
Kingsbury and Keim likely had a chat at some point this week, because when Kingsbury was asked about his Week 1 starter again on Thursday, he sounded much more open to playing Murray.
"We're going to work through that over the next couple weeks, but you don't take him in our situation at No. 1 to sit him on the bench, if you do, for very long," Kingsbury said, via SiriusXM's Mad Dog Radio. "We're going to build it around him and make sure he's comfortable in our system, adjust it to him and play to his strengths. Make sure we can have immediate success with him as our quarterback."
What you should take from all this is that unless Murray gets injured in training camp, there's nearly a 100 percent chance that he's going to be the Cardinals starting quarterback when they open their season at home on Sept. 8 against the Lions.
The Cardinals offense, which struggled in 2018, could be one of the most exciting units in the NFL in 2019. Kingsbury's plan is to bring his Air Raid system to the NFL -- which means there will be times when the Cardinals have five receivers on the field -- and Kingsbury expects Murray to thrive in those situations.
"The way we spread people out, the tempo in which we play, he's the guy who can really thrive in system," Kingsbury told Peter King this week. "We're going to play the game at times wider than probably most people do in the league. We're going to use the entire field and make them cover five wides and the quarterback and that's tough on defenses."
Basically, what all this means is that Hundley will likely be spending the 2019 season where he's spent most of his NFL career: On the bench.
- By John Breech
- May 2, 2019 at 4:45 pm ET • 2 min read
During an interview with Jim Rome on CBS Sports Network Wednesday, Kingsbury wasn't quite ready to commit to Murray when he was asked if the rookie would be his starting quarterback for the Cardinals' opener in September.
"We'll see," Kingsbury said. "We're still working through all those things. We have Brett Hundley here, who we're very excited about, but we'll see where that kind of goes."
Kingsbury might be "excited" about Hundley, but it doesn't seem that Keim feels the same way. During an interview on "The Rich Eisen Show" earlier this week, Keim didn't have to think twice when he was asked if Murray would be the team's opening day starter.
"Yes," the Cardinals general manager said. "We didn't draft him one overall to ride the pine. I know it's a lot to put on his back, but that's why we drafted him. He's a fierce competitor and that's what he did at Oklahoma this year. He put the team on his back, they didn't have a great defense and he knew he had to score on almost every series to give them a chance to win and I sort of like the chances there."
Kingsbury and Keim likely had a chat at some point this week, because when Kingsbury was asked about his Week 1 starter again on Thursday, he sounded much more open to playing Murray.
"We're going to work through that over the next couple weeks, but you don't take him in our situation at No. 1 to sit him on the bench, if you do, for very long," Kingsbury said, via SiriusXM's Mad Dog Radio. "We're going to build it around him and make sure he's comfortable in our system, adjust it to him and play to his strengths. Make sure we can have immediate success with him as our quarterback."
What you should take from all this is that unless Murray gets injured in training camp, there's nearly a 100 percent chance that he's going to be the Cardinals starting quarterback when they open their season at home on Sept. 8 against the Lions.
The Cardinals offense, which struggled in 2018, could be one of the most exciting units in the NFL in 2019. Kingsbury's plan is to bring his Air Raid system to the NFL -- which means there will be times when the Cardinals have five receivers on the field -- and Kingsbury expects Murray to thrive in those situations.
"The way we spread people out, the tempo in which we play, he's the guy who can really thrive in system," Kingsbury told Peter King this week. "We're going to play the game at times wider than probably most people do in the league. We're going to use the entire field and make them cover five wides and the quarterback and that's tough on defenses."
Basically, what all this means is that Hundley will likely be spending the 2019 season where he's spent most of his NFL career: On the bench.
