Cardinals players rave about Murray's offseason performance
Hype goes hand in hand with being the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, but according to his Arizona Cardinals teammates, Kyler Murray has been as good as advertised during offseason workouts.
"Kyler's confident, and he's not a cocky player," pass-rusher Chandler Jones said, according to ESPN's Josh Weinfuss. "For him to be the first overall pick, he's a very confident player. He's composed. I can see him construct, I see him getting guys together in the huddle, and as a young guy, that's something that I admire about him.
"He's good at grabbing guys' attention. I'm not sure how tall he is, but I see his little helmet and I see a little helmet in the huddle. He's grabbing guys. I'm just, it's impressive. He's an impressive player and I'm still sitting here watching him at practice, getting a front-row seat to the No. 1 pick and the Heisman winner."
Standing at just 5-foot-10, Murray is often compared to the only undersized quarterback who's achieved NFL stardom in recent years, Russell Wilson, who's an inch taller than for the former Oklahoma standout.
As someone who protected Wilson earlier in his career and is now tasked with keeping Murray upright as a rookie, guard J.R. Sweezy - who spent five seasons with the Seattle Seahawks - believes the comparisons are more than justified.
"I see hundreds of similarities," Sweezy said. "I always say, we got to see this guy really play. I think he's going to be just fine. But just to even be compared to Russell Wilson is a huge compliment.
"He's going to back it up. I just love that he's getting compared to him already and everything. He's going to be great."
Murray's set to start from Day 1 in head coach Kliff Kingsbury's newly implemented Air Raid offense, in which his dual-threat skill set could be used to lethal effect. In his only season starting in college, the quarterback ran for over 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns.
But for those focused too much on Murray's legs, running back David Johnson says they're missing how good of a passer the rookie already is.
"First off, he's faster and quicker than I thought when we got on the field," Johnson said. "I think a lot of people underestimate how great he can throw. He throws a dart. Accurate dart.
"Even in quarterback drills, seeing him throw it at the net and seeing him hit it five (times) in a row. I think a lot of people underestimate his throwing ability."