STEELE SPORTS
Listed at 5’10” on ESPN’s player database, new Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray is not a physically imposing presence on the gridiron, but he has certainly made a career of giving defenses nightmares.
At surface level, Murray has had somewhat of a disappointing professional career since going first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.
With only one playoff appearance and zero post-season wins in seven seasons, the veteran’s resume with the Cardinals is underwhelming compared to most franchise quarterbacks.
However, the same could once said about Sam Darnold until the 2025-26 season – and Vikings fans saw how his lone season in Minnesota panned out.
The nearly forgotten third overall pick parlayed his one season in purple and gold into a $100.5 million contract and a Super Bowl title with the Seattle Seahawks.
The wounds on the hearts of Vikings fans are still fresh after watching him walk and achieve greatness, but what should help Minnesota heal is knowing that a potential successor is now in the ranks.
Statistically speaking, Murray is not only an upgrade for current starter, J.J. McCarthy, but also a more well-rounded quarterback than Darnold.
Here are the selling points for why Murray could be the future of Minnesota football.
Passing Efficiency
Murray’s identity in the NFL has always been tied to his legs as a dual-threat quarterback.
The crafty veteran can scramble for extra yards or break off a long touchdown run at any time – he’s been doing it since high school, and he’s damn good at it.
What might surprise many fans is how his passing numbers stack up against Darnold.
Darnold was drafted in 2018 and has been active for 13 more career games than Murray, but that hasn’t stopped the latter from matching or outpacing Darnold in most every major category.
One of the most eye-opening differentials between the two comes in completion percentage where Murray’s 67.1% mark is comfortably ahead of Darnold’s 62.3%.
You could question sample size as part of the differential, but surprisingly enough, Murray has more completions (Murray 1,974, Darnold 1,766) and attempts (Murray 2,941, Darnold 2,833) even despite the 13-game difference.
However, arguably the biggest statistic that favors Murray is his touchdown-to-interception ratio; a key metric in determining how well quarterbacks avoid turnovers.
Murray has been incredibly protective of the football in his career and amassed 121 touchdowns to just 60 interceptions – good for a 2.02 ratio.
Meanwhile, Darnold has been much more risk-inclined, tossing 123 touchdowns (just two more lifetime than Murray) to 82 interceptions – good for a 1.5 ratio.
Also important to note is Murray’s improvement on limiting sacks.
After taking 106 sacks through his first three seasons (46 games), Murray has taken just 89 in his last 51 games since the beginning of 2022.
If you’re wondering whether the culmination of these stats represent any reluctance from Murray to take shots downfield, fear not, he’s capable of letting it fly.
Murray’s career yards per pass attempt sits at 7.0, just 0.2 shy of Darnold’s 7.2.
On top of these numbers, it should be noted that Murray’s new wide receiver core is a substantial upgrade to his supporting cast in Arizona – another major reason for optimism.
Rushing upside
If you think back to the last time Minnesota had a premier rushing quarterback, you might have to go back decades to the days of Daunte Culpepper or Fran Tarkenton (sorry Joshua Dobbs, you didn’t make the cut).
The Vikings have invested heavily in pro-style quarterbacks in recent memory, bypassing rushing ability for pure gunslingers.
Remember how cool it was when J.J. McCarthy dove for the corner of the endzone in Week One against Chicago last season for the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter?
That same exact play can be found countless times in Murray’s lifetime highlight tape.
With 532 career NFL carries and 3,193 yards on the ground, Murray has cemented himself as one of the league’s best scramblers and designed rushers at the quarterback position.
He won’t go through defenders, but he’ll certainly find a way around them.
The veteran averages 6.0 yards per carry and has totaled 32 career rushing scores with at least one rush of 30+ yards in every season of his career.
While he does have 37 career rushing fumbles, only eight have been lost – meaning he doesn’t put the ball in jeopardy often either.
Winning history
There’s an argument to be made that every quarterback that reaches the NFL level is a winner.
However, most NFL quarterbacks don’t have nearly the same lifetime resume as Murray.
His Allen High School football program went 42-0 and secured three state titles with him at the helm – a feat that has made him widely regarded as one of Texas’s best high school players of all time.
He was also a highly recruited baseball prospect, but initially chose to forego the sport in college to focus on football.
Fast forward to college and Murray had a bit of a wild ride.
The standout quarterback initially elected to stay at home to play for Texas A&M University and saw moderate success before transferring to the University of Oklahoma for a better football opportunity and to join the baseball program.
He was forced to sit out for the 2016 season and ultimately was the backup to Baker Mayfield in 2017 before he exploded on the scene by winning the Heisman Trophy with the Sooners in 2018 – the year he went first overall in the NFL Draft.
At this same time, Murray was also selected ninth overall in the MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics.
Plenty of other quarterbacks have been drafted to both the NFL and MLB – Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes are premier examples – but nobody has ever been a first-round, top 10 pick in both drafts.
I can’t stress it enough how much potential there is for the Vikings to have a diamond in the rough with another guy that the rest of the league had already begun to write off.