The bashing continues, but this time it’s from his teammates.
As if the struggling quarterback doesn’t have enough adjustments to make after Arizona cleaned house and he tore his ACL, Kyler Murray has teammates fighting over him.
Soon-to-be free agent, tackle Kelvin Beachum, who protected Murray for three seasons, told Arizona Sports’ “Burns and Gambo” he believes Murray needs to “grow up a little bit” in order to become one of the great franchise quarterbacks on Wednesday.
“It’s not complicated. You gotta be a leader of man… He’s maturing… It’s not a completed process,” he said. “I didn’t say he lacks leadership. I just think he needs to grow up a little bit. I think if he has the ability and willingness to grow up, he’s going to be just fine.
“They paid him for a reason; they paid him because of his talent. He has the ability to lead. When you’re in that position, we need you to lead more. You’re the face of the franchise … you have to lead in every single capacity.”
Beachum believes the 2018 Heisman winner has the tools to get there as a top talent in the league, but he pointed out the challenges of getting to that point in a career.
The comments prompted a user to tweet at Beachum writing, “Don’t you got his number bro? @KelvinBeachumJr.”
Fellow wide receiver Marquise Brown was upset by the feud and felt the need to step in between his teammates.
“I ain’t never seen this much collusion from within,” he tweeted. “We got each-other number but steady get on podcast or tweet sh!t it’ll be different if it was addressed in person first cause 1 ain’t never public bash or talk down anybody even after years of runing 4 his lif @KelvinBeachumJr.”
Murray, 25, was drafted in 2019 as the first overall pick and extended on a five-year deal to begin in 2024 worth up to $230.5 million by those no longer in the Cardinals organization.
New faces are in town after the 2022 season and it will be Murray’s first major adjustment after Arizona fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury and replaced him with Jonathan Gannon, along with hiring general manager Monti Ossenfort after former Steve Keim walked away due to health reasons.
In 2021, Murray was in the conversation as an MVP candidate and a leading quarterback in the league after giving the Cardinals an 11-6 season and their first playoff berth since 2015.
He threw for 3,787 yards with 24 touchdowns and completed a career-high 69.2% of his passes.
The 2022 season was a less convincing showing, going 4-9 before suffering an ACL tear in Week 14.
“Kyler is his own individual. He’s his own person, he beats to his own drum, which has made him what he is today,” Beachum concluded. “But, at the end of the day, you have to be able to lead an entire organization, you’ve got to lead a team.”