PFF Highlights Kyler Murray's Biggest Weakness

Pro Football Focus says the middle of the field is Murray's weakness.

Aug 10, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray throws on the sideline against the New Orleans Saints during the second half at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

ARIZONA -- Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray enters 2024 fully healthy with a reloaded offense and opportunity to flip the script on plenty of the national narratives that follow him.

Murray is coming off playing half a season thanks to his late ACL tear in 2022, which kept him out of action for the first half of last year. He eventually returned and so too did Arizona's offensive prowess - finishing as a top ten team in offensive EPA for the second half of the season while averaging a touchdown more points per game.

Murray projects to have a bounce back season, though like any starter in the NFL, his game comes with strengths and weaknesses.

Pro Football Focus recently went through each starting quarterback's biggest weakness - Murray's was labeled as pressure and throwing over the middle.

From John Kosko:

"Murray hasn’t been great under pressure in his NFL career — and especially in 2023, when he earned a poor 44.5 PFF passing grade when under duress. While it is a smaller sample size due to his missing half the season, his struggles under pressure aren’t new.

"Another weakness of Murray's, possibly due to his short stature, is that he struggles on reads to the middle of the field, earning a 43.6 passing grade on such plays over the past two seasons while sporting a 75.5 grade on all other reads."

There were a handful of other quarterbacks with pressure listed, though only New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr also was tabbed with middle of the field issues.

Murray's certainly looking to surprise everybody - even his own coaching staff.

“Drew, Izzy, even JG in a sense, those guys haven’t been around me my whole career. They played me maybe once so they got a glimpse of it, but do they really understand what type of player I am and what I can fully do?" said Murray earlier during training camp.

"That’s what I would like to do is surprise them on how good of a player I can be.”