Anonymous Quotes about Kyler from former coach and executive (The Athletic)
David Berding / Getty Images
By Walter Mitchell
A couple of days ago, Alec Lewis of The Athletic wrote this analytical article titled,
Why Kyler Murray’s fit with the Vikings is inspiring optimism headed into training camp
Here is the link:
Four of the key sources for quotes whom Alec Lewis used are:
1. Lincoln Riley, Kyler's former head coach at Oklahoma, now head coach at USC.
2. Chase Edmonds, former Cardinals' teammate of Kyler's from 2019 -2021.
3. Anonymous former Cardinals' coach.
4. Anonymous former Cardinals' executive.
Here are the main quotes from each:
Riley:
“The organization he’s a part of, how that organization works, how that organization is coached, how that organization goes about their things on a day-to-day basis is a lot different,” Riley said. “He wants to do it at the highest level, and he wants to be surrounded by that." "If I were a Vikings fan,” Riley said, “I’d be licking my chops seeing how motivated this cat is right now. It is off the charts.”
Gist: Cardinals are at fault for Kyler's demise in Arizona. He needed an organization like Minnesota's for his motivation to be "off the charts."
Edmonds:
“I think how his career has gone the last two or three years has been necessary for his growth,” said Chase Edmonds, a former teammate of Murray’s who played last year for the Washington Commanders. “The Vikings are going to be getting the best Kyler Murray that anyone has ever seen in terms of consistency.”
Gist: the Cardinals got in Kyler's way, the Vikings won't.
Context: Chase Edmonds played with Kyler during Kyler's best three seasons.
Anonymous former Cardinals' coach:
Once the signing with the Vikings was official, one of Murray’s coaches with the Cardinals, who requested anonymity to be candid about a former player, put the prevailing opinion bluntly.
“I think you’re about to see the best version of Kyler Murray,” this coach said. “And I’m f—ing pissed that I’m not going to get to be a part of it. I’m going to be jealous when he’s in a good environment, his headspace is good, and he shows people who the f— he is.”
Guess: Jonathan Gannon.
Giveaway: Who else would say, "I am f---ing pissed I'm not going to be a part of it."
Gist: If Gannon is indeed the speaker here, how about being pissed that you had three years to bring Kyler's career to a higher level, yet you couldn't make it work and, to a significant degree, cost you your job.
Diss on Cardinals: "I am going to be jealous when he's in a good environment." Hmmm --- no wonder the anonymity. Makes you wonder whether Gannon was asked to sign an NDA from Bidwill upon his dismissal.
Anonymous former Cardinals' executive:
One former Cardinals executive, who was not authorized to speak publicly about Murray, added: “He has always wanted to be held accountable. I think a lack of that at times may have led to some of the inconsistencies. If I was a betting man, I would bet that you’re going to see some wild s— this year. To have the talent he is, with the talent (the Vikings) have, and to have O’Connell, who has a great mind and a great way of seeing it, they could be a really scary team.”
Guess: Steve Keim.
Giveaway: "who was not authorized to speak publicly" --- sure sign of a Bidwill-esque quid pro quo type of NDA.
Diss on Kliff: Kliff Kingsbury didn't do a good enough job holding Kyler accountable. In contrast, Kevin O'Connell has a "great mind and way of seeing (coaching QBs)."
Irony: Kliff's style of coaching, as groomed in him by his father, is dependent on the mantra of "praise publicly, criticize privately." Pundits and fans have long assumed that Kliff took it too easy on Kyler, yet when Kliff tried to hold Kyler accountable for his costly back-to-back audibles in the Green Bay game, Kyler wanted no part of it. It's no coincidence that for the next year and a half, there was a rift the size of the Grand Canyon between Kliff and Kyler. They barely spoke.
Added Irony of Keim dissing on Kliff: to date, Kliff Kingsbury in his first three years helped coach Kyler Murray to
* NFL ROY in 2019
* Pro Bowl in 2020
* Pro Bowl in 2021 and the most productive season of Kyler's career which over the ensuing 4 years he has not even come close to matching.
Fabrication: "Kyler always wanted to be held accountable" --- what a crock! There are so many examples --- here are the top three that come to mind:
1. During holdout --- the whole "I'm just doing what kids my age do" (re: scrubbing socials) and then pointing all of the hoopla, drama and embarrassing treatment of the Cardinals' organization about his holdout straight and completely toward his agent.
2. "“I'm not one of those guys that's going to sit there and kill myself watching film. I don't sit there for 24 hours and break down this team and that team and watch every game because, in my head, I see so much.”
New York Times article.
3. "I just run the plays that the coaches call."
After the 22-21 loss to the Titans in Week 5 when asked about the failed 3rd and 8 late in the game.
People could do a better job of understanding Kliff's, Drew Petzing's (or any OC's) dilemma in trying to coach Kyler, especially in light of how sensitive and down Kyler gets --- he makes it difficult for coaches to get too hard on him --- because then, he will tune them out for possibly days, weeks and potentially forever.
Kevin O'Connell has a challenging job of coaching Kyler. During OTAs after some tough days of practice, Kyler basically threw his new head coach under the bus by lamenting that "hey, I'm not used to getting half the snaps." Kind of as a --- what should anyone expect under those circumstances?
Summary:
Alec Lewis found as many quotes as he could to highlight what he feels is an inspired "optimism" about Kyler's fit with the Vikings.
The two juiciest quotes Lewis got were from cussing former Cardinals who worked with Kyler who talked only under the condition of anonymity.
And seeing as 46% of the Cardinals' fans in our recent Red Rain poll voted they "never did" at any point lose faith in Kyler Murray, we now know that, unless the anonymous Cardinals coach and executive were being facetious or sarcastic, that they have never lost faith in Kyler either --- and yet both of them lost their jobs because of Kyler's demise within the organization --- that's some kind of loyalty to a former player who underachieved, isn't it?
You know, there are other first round QBs who came into downtrodden organizations that they helped turn around. Some that come to mind:
* Josh Allen
* Joe Burrow
* C.J. Stroud
* Trevor Lawrence
* Bo Nix
* Jayden Daniels
I apologize to Jonathan Gannon and/or Steve Keim if they were not the sources. It's just seemed obvious that they were.
Do you agree?
Your thoughts?
I place 0 stock in any sort of journalistic puff piece relying on anonymous sources. It's possible that JG and SK said these things to Alex Lewis, or that someone else did. It's also possible that he took quotes out of context or embellished parts of it. Even if every single thing written here is legitimate, we Cardinal fans heard similar things about Kyler from "sources" when he was a Cardinal, just for the product on the field to tell a different story.
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