The Arizona Cardinals have 99 problems right now, and not only is their starting quarterback one, he may be the biggest. Nothing is going right for the Cards, who keep losing in the most excruciating ways possible and now must contend with the apparent reality that their $230 million quarterback may be worse than their backup who is on his sixth team in as many years.
The Cards have been the antithesis of clutch as they've lost five straight games by a combined total of 13 points. Their only wins of the season have come against the Saints and Panthers, and they're the only team to lose to the Titans, who have since fired their head coach. Other than that one-point win, the Titans point differential is a ghastly -97 in their other six games.
The Cardinals have completely fallen out of the NFC West race, as the Rams, 49ers and Seahawks have continued to stack up wins. Arizona, meanwhile, is three games back in the loss column on all of them. Next week's bye is much needed in more ways than one.
The best opponents by record that the Cardinals have faced this season have come in the past two weeks. Those games went the same way the previous three had, with a close loss. The only difference is that Jacoby Brissett was playing quarterback as Kyler Murray tended to a foot injury that he suffered in the loss to the Titans, an injury that apparently happened when a shotgun snap hit him in the face. I wish I was making that up.
When a quarterback isn't playing well, it's easy to blame external factors for his performance. It's much harder to do that when another QB comes in and looks better, which is exactly what Brissett has done. He's thrown for 599 yards in his two starts, and his lowest total of 270 yards passing is still 50 yards higher than Murray's best number of the season. Even going back to last year when Murray started all 17 games, he only threw for more than 270 yards three times.
Jacoby Brissett's performance is showing the Cardinals that Kyler Murray isn't the answer
Murray has the mobility to extend plays and pick up first downs with his legs, but even that hasn't really helped him outshine Brissett, who usually looks like he's carrying an invisible piano on his back when he runs. Murray has run for just over 34 yards per game this year while also being sacked an average of 3.2 times. Brissett isn't far off, with 22.5 yards rushing per start and four sacks per game.
The Cardinals have to be wondering why they're paying Murray so much money to play at a replacement level, but fans will remember that they seemed to have reservations even when they extended him back in 2022. That contract became a talking point around the league for its unique language that seemed to imply that Murray needed a binding reason to put in the work necessary to be a franchise quarterback. If the Cardinals didn't trust in Murray's work ethic then, why did they commit nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to him?
The nature of the NFL salary cap punishes big-ticket contract mistakes, and the Cardinals have no easy out with Murray for at least a couple of years. They have a club option that they could decline, but that's not available to them until 2028. According to Spotrac, if they cut or traded him in 2027, they'd get away with only about a $7 million cap hit, but if they pulled the plug after this season, that number would be at least $27.7 million if they found a trade partner (highly unlikely) and at least $50.5 million if they released him.
There's not much choice but to ride it out a while longer, but if Murray comes back in after next week's bye and looks worse than Brissett, this is the kind of thing that can turn a locker room sour in a hurry. There's even more pressure on the former Heisman Trophy winner because he'll be going against the Cowboys and Matt Eberflus' defense with an extra week of preparation, which is about as good a spot as a quarterback can ask for.
The Cowboys were strafed for 111 combined points in three consecutive weeks by the since-benched Russell Wilson, Caleb Williams and Jordan Love. They gave up 30 last week to Bryce Young and are allowing the most passing yards in the league. If Murray throws for anywhere near the 192 yards he's averaging right now it's going to get ugly, and even worse, it will be on the biggest stage in front of a national audience. You can almost hear Peyton and Eli sighing in frustration on Monday Night Football's Manningcast if Murray gets severely outplayed by the red-hot Dak Prescott.
The Cardinals are one of 10 teams in the league with two wins or less right now, and they face only two teams the rest of the way (the Texans and Bengals) who have a losing record right now. Unless Murray finds a way to evolve his game in a hurry, the Cardinals might be drafting his eventual replacement in April.