Kyler Murray heads into a challenging 2021 NFLseason with the Arizona Cardinals in his third year in the league. 2019 No. 1 pick aims to lift his team from an 8-8 record last year, and he can’t wait for the regular season to begin.
The 24-year-old has been off the field since January 3 when he was forced off the final game of the campaignagainst the Los Angeles Rams through an ankle injury.
Therefore, it would seem like Murray would be thrilled to get back into action and get some snaps. However, his honest take on the NFL preseason indicates he is not a fan of this part of the year butwants the real competition to begin instead.
Kyler Murray’s honest takeon NFL preseason
It’s true that for many football fans the preseason is meaningless. All they care about is the regular season to get underway and witness the battle for the playoff spots. Other people would disagree, but not Kyler Murray.
“It’s not real,” he said after Tuesday’s training camp practice, as quoted by Arizona Republic‘s Bob McManaman. “I see it as like, go out and play well, but it’s not real. You play bad, you’ve got a bad taste in your mouth. It’s reps, it’s live reps, so you take something away from it. But at the end of the day, this doesn’t count.”
Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray during an off-season workout on June 2021. (Getty)
In fact, Murray showed to be quite pleased with how things worked out last year by jumping directly into the regular season:“I loved last year,. You practice every day hard against your team and then you come out of the gates running. That’s how it is in college. Obviously, this is the NFL, but I liked the way it was set up.”
The Cardinals quarterback added that he doesn’t like taking days off, and that the preseason has a strange rhythm that doesn’t charm himvery much.“I’m not very fond of it. I like going hard in practice and then on Sunday, let the chips fall where they may. The preseason, like I said, it doesn’t count.”
Murray has added that his focus ison September 12, when Arizona take on the Tennessee Titans. He clearly doesn’t like preseason very much, but it seems like he will take a few snaps on Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
