Early in Kyler Murray’s career, playing for former head coach Kliff Kingsbury, the Cardinals surrounded the quarterback with players cut from the same mold. Murray is the shortest quarterback in the league but also one of the shiftiest and most explosive. Receivers Marquise Brown, Andy Isabella and Rondale Moore, who were all early draft picks, were all 5-foot-9 or shorter and all ran 4.3 40-yard dashes.
Kingsbury and former general manager Steve Keim tried to build their offense around the annoyingly fast kids nobody could tag in two-hand touch.
But the vision was short-sighted, the receivers too slight to make an impact in the league, and Kingsbury’s tempo offense fizzled out.
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The new Cardinals regime, led by general manager Monti Ossenfort, has taken the opposite approach. The Cardinals have surrounded Murray with bullies. Murray’s top targets are receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. (6-foot-3, 209 pounds), Michael Wilson (6-1 5/8th, 213 pounds) and tight end Trey McBride (6-3 5/8th, 246 pounds). Offensively, they like to keep big players on the field, they’re fourth in the league in multiple tight end usage.
The system is built around a physical ground game that leads the league in gap scheme usage (53 percent), which is typically run from under center, yet the Cardinals are in shotgun formation on 71 percent of snaps. The offense aesthetically resembles the single-wing teams of the early 20th century in which the ball was shotgun snapped to the quarterback, who was essentially another running back.
Week 5, 13:23 remaining in the first quarter, first-and-10
Here the Cardinals lined up with three tight ends in a condensed formation with Murray in pistol. The call was a zone read with one of the tight ends going across the formation to lead block for Murray. Because of the unique formation, 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa lined up on tight end Tip Reiman. Bosa was also the read man. Typically, defenses will have different techniques for how their ends play against the zone read, but Bosa is extremely limited with what he could do in this alignment.
Reiman shoved Bosa inside before blocking linebacker Fred Warner with a favorable angle. This was an easy read for Murray, who kept the ball.
With everyone compressed inside, Murray had a ton of space to work with on the perimeter with a lead blocker ahead of him.
Bye bye Ky 👋 @AZCardinals take an early lead!
📺: #AZvsSF on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/EUHKDDLEoO— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024
The crux of defending the offense is that defenses have to match the Cardinals’ bigger bodies with base personnel (three or more linebackers), but they also have to deal with Murray’s speed on keepers, scrambles or option plays. When defenses have three or more linebackers on the field, the Cardinals lead the league in explosive play rate (14.9 percent) and are third in offensive success rate (52.4 percent).
The Cardinals have a unique offense that the NFL isn’t used to seeing and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing is doing a good job of drawing up creative concepts to keep defenses off balance.
Week 5, 11:31 remaining in the fourth quarter, first-and-2
On the goal line, the Cardinals came out with an extra offensive lineman and three tight ends with Murray in shotgun. They faked quarterback power and threw a “pop” pass.
The Cardinals pulled a guard and running back James Conner faked a lead block before leaking out into the flats. Tight end Elijah Higgins did an excellent job of selling a fake before running to the corner of the end zone. Murray ran at the line of scrimmage before throwing the ball over the heads of the defense.
Pop pass to perfection 💥
📺: #AZvsSF on FOXpic.twitter.com/VfgrWVONhK
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) October 6, 2024
Similar to what Kyle Shanahan does in San Francisco, the Cardinals also force the defense into simpler looks and create mismatches by coming out in heavy personnel but lining up in spread formations.
Week 6, 2:00 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-18
On first-and-18 in the red zone, the Cardinals had their 12 personnel on the field but lined up in an empty formation with running back Trey Benson lined up out wide to run a slant. Receiver Xavier Weaver motioned across and outside of receiver Michael Wilson and ran a vertical as part of their four verticals concept.
The defense was in a cover 3 zone. Defenses will often have simple checks against spread formations and heavy personnel groupings. Packers safety Xavier McKinney bit up on Benson’s route, leaving Wilson wide open down the seam.
Michael Wilson comes down with it and the Cards are on the board #BirdGang
📺: #AZvsGB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/O3vEhBq1Ag— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024
Petzing comes from a West Coast offense background, which is rooted in timing and accurate ball location. Murray’s ability to play off-script will always be his trump card, but he’s playing with precision that we haven’t seen from him during his early years. Murray ranks sixth in percentage of throws thrown at 2.5 seconds or less, according to TruMedia.
Week 8, 8:56 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-14
On this play against the Dolphins, the Cardinals were in 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two receivers). The Dolphins, who are aggressive defensively, gave away their blitz as Jalen Ramsey lined up on the line to Murray’s right and linebacker David Long crept up to the line before the snap. Murray saw the movement and brought one of his tight ends in to block and changed the protection.
The pass concept was a curl/flat concept in which Murray was throwing off the flat defender. The flat defender only leaned slightly outside, but Murray knew that was enough for him to hit Wilson on the curl.
He threw a perfectly placed ball in a tight window between three defenders. The difference between a downfield throw and a check-down here was Murray’s recognition, arm talent and accuracy.
Fresh calamari for this week’s QB charting on Quick Outs.
Kyler Murray was outstanding against the Dolphins. Half his incompletions were batted balls (5’10” QB) or throwaways. Almost every other throw Murray made was on the money. At least four superstar level throws. pic.twitter.com/zg6wG37x4H
— Derrik Klassen (@QBKlass) October 31, 2024
Conner doesn’t get a lot of recognition, but he’s playing at a very high level, consistently breaking tackles and getting the hard yards. McBride looks like he can become one of the best tight ends in the league. Petzing is doing a good job of keeping McBride involved with the passing game and they seem to be funneling him targets. However, for this offense to reach its ceiling, Harrison has to consistently get touches downfield. The Cardinals were almost exclusively using him on vertical sideline throws, but they did a good job of varying how they targeted him against the Dolphins.
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Week 8, 1:55 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-10
Once again, the Cardinals came out in 12 personnel. The defense had to match with three linebackers with one of their linebackers on the line of scrimmage.
The defense played man coverage and Harrison ran a crosser to the other side of the field. Murray looked off the safety and all Harrison had to do was outrun the corner across the field.
What a catch by Marvin Harrison Jr. for the score!
📺: #AZvsMIA on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/NGzEMNJhBc— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
Though Murray played well against the Dolphins’ pressures, he can still struggle at the blitz. Defenses want to shrink the pocket and surround him with multiple bodies. He can make some spectacular throws while retreating, but it can also lead to spectacularly bad plays as well.
Additionally, this offensive line can struggle in true passing situations (20th in ESPN’s pass block win rate). The Cardinals have to stay on schedule to move the ball efficiently, but Petzing rarely strays away from their identity even when they are down. Two of their wins came on field goals with time expiring.
The Cardinals will play against one of the league’s best run and overall defenses when they face the Bears on Sunday. They’re particularly good in their base defense (first in success rate with three or more linebackers on the field) against which the Cardinals typically thrive. It’ll be the biggest test of the season for Petzing’s unique offense.
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(Top photo: Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
