Trading Kyler Murray would be smart move by Cardinals

The Cardinals should move Kyler Murray but will they be smart enough to trade him?

Historically speaking, the Arizona Cardinals have not been the smartest football organization. Their most recent playoff win came in 2015 with Carson Palmer and Bruce Arians, and that was only their seventh postseason win over 106 seasons as an organization. Six seasons since drafting Kyler Murray only a year after drafting Josh Rosen in the top-10, the Cardinals have an 0-1 playoff record and Murray was awful in that loss to the Rams.

If the Cardinals know what’s good for them, and chances are that they don’t, they will trade Murray before the NFL’s trade deadline. That is perhaps the only scenario in which the L.A. Rams will need to be fearful of the Arizona Cardinals becoming the next Detroit Lions.

Otherwise, the Cardinals are doomed to continue hitting their ceiling of 9 wins with Murray. Or a floor of 13 losses.

What could Cardinals get for Murray?

As mediocre as Murray has been for the past six seasons, averaging 24 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions over a 17-game season, with only 7.0 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 92.4, he’s an upgrade for several teams that have aspirations of a deep playoff run.

For example, teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers (if something goes awry with Aaron Rodgers), Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, and Minnesota Vikings might be interested in adding Murray come September or October.

The Saints and Colts would be obvious destinations before the season if the Cardinals pull of a surprising trade similar to when Sam Bradford was shipped to the Vikings in a pre-Week 1 deal. The Eagles got a first round pick in that move, which netted them Derek Barnett. (Ironically they sent a fourth round pick to the Vikings that they would eventually get back and use to draft Josh Sweat, a better pass rusher than Barnett and now a member of the Cardinals.)

Imagine if we get to the end of training camp, the Cardinals feel great about their defense but iffy on whether or not Murray is the right quarterback for the offense because nobody in the organization (not the GM, the HC, or the OC) was with Arizona when they picked Murray. In fact, they might have signed Jacoby Brissett in the offseason because they feel Brissett will be better at running the offense than Murray.

If the Saints or Colts offer a second and a fourth round pick in 2026, taking Murray’s $18 million salary in 2025 off of Arizona’s books, would that be enough for the Cardinals to say, “Thank you, we’ll do it” and also save tons of future cap space?

The Cardinals only have a projected $14 million in cap space in 2026, but trading Murray this year changes that number to $50 million!

The Cardinals would actually be a scarier team if they had a competent pocket passer who could throw over the middle + $50 million in 2026 cap space than if they just maintain the same path with a quarterback who has a career record of 36-46-1.

We know that Murray is not solely responsible for Arizona’s record…but he’s LARGELY responsible.

Yes, Murray is the rare NFL quarterback who can convert a 4th-and-16 with either his arm or his legs. But he’s also the kind of starter who might regularly need to convert fourth downs because teams know how to defend him on first, second, and third.

For a Cardinals team that has recently invested top-6 draft picks in WR Marvin Harrison and LT Paris Johnson, not to mention a top-three NFL tight end in Trey McBride, spending even more time trying to make the offense work for Murray — rather than trading him for draft picks and cap space — seems like a loss for Arizona and a win for the rest of the NFC West. Especially the L.A. Rams, as they are the ones that have to defend the crown.

For most of the last 100 years, the Cardinals have not been a scary football team. Although Kyler Murray gave opposition a little bit to be worried about in his first three seasons, the last three have proven that his bark is worse than his height.