The Arizona Cardinals have teased the return of starting quarterback Kyler Murray on social media. The post shows Murray stood within a mockup of a music platform, with the track playing listed as "I'm Back" by "K.1.". Murray has been sidelined by injury since December 2022. In his absence, the Cardinals have struggled behind the quarterback play of Joshua Dobbs, who was recently traded to the Vikings. Murray is expected to start against the Falcons this weekend.
Despite this, head coach Jonathan Gannon made no assertions that the only issue for 1-8 Cardinals was at QB. “We’ve got to play clean football in all three phases. We’ve got to do our job on defense and special teams. It doesn’t matter who is playing quarterback," Gannon told reporters. Last week was an especially low point for the team. They lost 27-0 to the Browns and managed just 58 yards of offense behind rookie Clayton Tune.
Falcons Looking To Spoil Murray's Return
However, the Falcons aren't exactly flying high either. 4-5 on the season, Atlanta have lost five of their last seven and have dropped winnable games in back-to-back weeks. “We’re not going to sugarcoat it. You can be frustrated. You can be mad. You’re going to feel all the emotions by it. But we have to go do something about it. As bad as it feels — nobody’s celebrating being 4-5 — but the reality is when you have perspective, after we get these corrections and assess everything, we do still control our own destiny. We have half a season," head coach Arthur Smith said.
Murray's counterpart for Atlanta will be veteran Taylor Heinicke, who remains QB1 for the Falcons. However, Heinicke spoke about doing his best to support benched sophomore Desmond Ridder. “Me and Des have talked privately. I’ve told him everything he’s been doing since he was starting, running the meetings, keep doing. Everything. I think that’s going to help him in the long run. He has been great, the same Des. It speaks to his character," Heinicke said.
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