Outgoing Cardinals player says Kyler Murray still needs to grow up a little

Offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum spent the past three years protecting Kyler Murray in Arizona, and he has some thoughts on what steps the quarterback needs to take to continue to progress. 

Quite simply, he still needs to grow up a little bit.   

Beachum, a pending free agent this offseason, made the comments on Wednesday during an appearance on Arizona Sports Burns and Gambo. 

Beachum made sure to specifically say that Murray was not a bad leader, but that he just needed to grow up. 

“It’s not a completed process,” Beachum said. “I didn’t say he lacks leadership. I just think he needs to grow up a little bit. I think if he has the ability and willingness to grow up, he’s going to be just fine. 

“They paid him for a reason, they paid him because of his talent. He has the ability to lead. When you’re in that position, we need you to lead more. You’re the face of the franchise … you have to lead in every single capacity.”

The Cardinals made a huge financial investment in Murray, signing him to a five-year, $230 million contract extension to be the team's franchise player. But so far, the results have been very mixed. The Cardinals have not found team success with Murray as their starter, while Murray's development seems to have hit a plateau. When he initially signed his extension, it was reported that the Cardinals had attempted to insert a clause into his contract that would require him to study his playbook for several hours on his own. That was presumably an indication that the Cardinals did not trust him to study his playbook enough. 

Murray played just 11 games during the 2022 season before suffering a torn ACL that might sideline him for the start of the 2023 season. 

After the Cardinals finished with a disappointing 4-13 record the team completely overhauled its front office and coaching staff, bringing in a new general manager and replacing head coach Kliff Kingsbury with former Philadelphia Eagles assistant Jonathan Gannon. 

Their success will largely be dependent not only on Murray's health, but his ability to take a big step forward in his development and become the $230 million quarterback the previous front office and coaching staff thought he was going to be.