Cardinals Will Keep Kyler Murray on PUP; Will Miss First Four Games

The Arizona Cardinals will have somebody else calling the shots under center while Kyler Murray recovers from an ACL injury.

The Arizona Cardinals will be without Kyler Murray for the first four weeks of the season, as the club reportedly plans to not activate him from the PUP (physically unable to perform) list according to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter. 

"Cardinals do not plan to activate QB Kyler Murray off the Physically Unable to Perform List by Tuesday’s 4 pm ET deadline, which means he then would ineligible to be active during the first four games of the season," said Schefter in a tweet. 

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport is reporting the same:

The #AZCardinals will keep QB Kyler Murray on the reserve/PUP list to begin the season, as Murray continues to recover from the ACL injury suffered late last season, sources say. He’ll be out at least the first four games, which is not a surprise.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 28, 2023

It's been a long road to recovery for Murray, who tore his ACL and meniscus in Week 14 of the 2022 season. He had surgery in early January and has been working his way back since. 

His progress was reportedly ahead of schedule as the summer approached, giving some hope that he could return earlier than anticipated. On the team's YouTube series "Flight Plan" Murray set a lofty goal to return by Week 1 of the regular season, though he later admitted to reporters he didn't actually have a realistic timeline. 

Murray has been spotted still walking with a noticeable limp and was considered unlikely to return at the beginning of the season after being a non-participant in training camp/preseason.

With Colt McCoy no longer on the roster after reportedly being cut, Clayton Tune and Josh Dobbs will battle it out for the starting spot in Arizona. The Cardinals are on the road in Washington for Week 1.