Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray discusses NFL draft and maybe playing baseball again

Bob McManaman | Arizona Republic

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Kyler Murray’s sore right hamstring is almost fully healed, but his right hand was in some serious pain on Thursday.

The Arizona Cardinals quarterback, fresh off a record-setting rookie NFL season, was spending the day in Los Angeles. He was a guest of Panini America and was signing thousands of trading cards ahead of the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, which will take place Saturday in Pasadena, California.

Earlier this week, Murray experienced both ends of the emotional spectrum.

Monday night, he watched LSU defeat Clemson for the College Football National Championship, and it made him wish he had a chance to play in the title game while he was still in college. He shared those thoughts on Twitter during the game.

“Not winning a National Championship … that hurts the most,” Murray wrote. “Always wanted to play in this game.”

The frustration was still there Thursday afternoon. He wouldn’t call it a “regret,” he said, but it was a lifelong dream he never got to fulfill, and it bothers him greatly.

“Just growing up and watching college football, loving football, it’s just one of those things I always wanted to be a part of,” the former Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma said. “I won state championships in high school every year I played. I won pee wee championships. Every year I played football, I’ve been in championships except for college and the NFL.

“You’re really a family in college. I love to win, and there’s something about winning a national championship. It’s not the Super Bowl, but at the same time, you remember it forever. It’s just special. It would have been very special and mean a lot. It kind of pokes at you and stings because you never get that opportunity to go back and play college football with your guys.”

Asked if that meant it’s now Super Bowl or bust, Murray laughed and said, “Oh, we definitely got to do that.”

He’d love nothing more than to do it next season now that good friend and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is returning for his 17th year with the Cardinals. The news came out on Wednesday.

One of the reasons Fitzgerald decided to keep playing is Murray, who in 2019 became just the sixth quarterback in NFL history – and only the second rookie – to pass for at least 3,500 yards and rush for 500 or more yards.

“He’s a stud. He’s going to be a special player for years to come,” Fitzgerald said of Murray, via an interview with the Golf Channel following Wednesday’s announcement. “Playing receiver with him makes it easy.”

Murray doesn’t get choked up easily, but that type of praise by that type of person and player was enough to freeze him in his tracks.

“It’s big. It’s surreal at the same time because that’s Larry Fitzgerald,” he said. “He’s one of the best to ever play the game so for me, that’s obviously a big deal. I’m glad he’s back. I’m glad he has that faith in me.

“I saw his tweet talking about that young nucleus we’ve got. That was cool. I’m just glad he’s back because he means a lot. He meant a lot to me, a lot to the organization and the fans. He’s got a lot left in him. He’s a big brother to a lot of us. If he was not on the team, it would feel a little weird.”

Murray is hopeful the core group will be back for next season when the Cardinals look to take the next step and improve significantly from their 5-10-1 finish. Now that Fitzgerald is back in the fold, Murray was asked how he would feel if the Cardinals spent the No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft on receiver CeeDee Lamb, his former teammate at Oklahoma.

“Me and CeeDee have a great relationship,” Murray said. “That’s one of my boys. I would obviously be very fond of that pick. Obviously, I don’t make the choices. I’m here for whatever, but I’m looking forward to free agency and us adding some great players and adding more of them in the draft so we can continue to grow this thing.

“But yeah, if we pick CeeDee, that would be great. We have a very comfortable relationship. I’ve played with him, I’ve been with him for years, so yeah, I don’t think that would be a bad pick at all.”

Murray shared something else: Someday, once he’s firmly entrenched as a top NFL quarterback, he wouldn’t mind doing what Deion Sanders once did -- playing football and baseball in the same season.

The only athlete ever to be a first-round draft pick in the NFL and Major League Baseball, Murray said he thinks he could pull it off.

“Athletically, I think yeah, I could do it. I’ve been playing both my whole life. I would love to add that to the resume. I don’t understand why in sports they try to marginalize it. They try to make you pick one and I get it, but we’ll see. I think it would be fun. Right now, though, I’m just focused on football.”