Kyler Murray recently began practicing for the Arizona Cardinals after tearing an ACL at the end of last season and missing every game to date in the current campaign. However, the team doesn't appear to be in any hurry to get its starting quarterback on the field.
Murray was removed from this week's injury report, but when asked if he'll be playing on Sunday, head coach Jonathan Gannon replied, "We'll see." And the Cardinals haven't made any moves to suggest they're trying to be competitive this season.
Arizona has already held a fire sale in 2023, unloading players on expiring contracts at the end of training camp like offensive tackle Josh Jones and linebacker Isaiah Simmons. Granted, the Cardinals did acquire one player, career-long backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs, who wasn't going to make the Cleveland Browns' roster after losing a position battle for the second-string job to rookie fifth-round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
Dobbs has been the Cardinals' starter every game this season as the organization is pretty clearly trying to tank. And they're doing a good job of that at 1-6. But what would throw a wrench into the plans? Getting their actual starting quarterback back.
Instead of winning a few meaningless games that would take the team out of range for drafting a new signal-caller, don't be surprised if Arizona looks to add more draft picks to help with the rebuild and trades Murray to a quarterback-needy team.
The Atlanta Falcons have a good roster that's filled with offensive playmakers and quality defenders. However, Desmond Ridder has been inconsistent at best this season, and that's a big reason they haven't been able to pull away in the NFC South standings.
So it would make sense for the Falcons to upgrade at quarterback with Murray and continue their playoff push.
Finances will be a big hurdle in making this deal come to fruition, but, as Underdog Fantasy's Hayden Winks points out, the Cardinals can make it work.
Hayden Winks @HaydenWinksKyler Murray is completely off the injury report but not deemed the Cardinals starter, just days before the trade deadline.<br><br>They can afford to eat $46M next year in dead money by trading him now. An acquiring team gets him for almost no $ this year and $35M guaranteed in '24. <a href="">
Spotrac currently estimates that Arizona will have over $64 million in cap space in 2024, and that's with Murray accounting for nearly $52 million. In other words, the math could work out, and the haul of draft picks might be worth the sunk cost. Meanwhile, Atlanta would fix its biggest issue.
