If you’ve been watching closely and I know you have, there’s been a very clear, deliberate shift made by both the Arizona Cardinals and Kyler Murray.
Did you notice it?
Over the last two weeks, the Arizona Cardinals have done a very good job at publicly highlighting Kyler Murray’s leadership on the field.
Over the last two weeks, Kyler Murray has done a very good job of adjusting his on field leadership as the leader of the Arizona Cardinals.
Those things aren’t a coincidence with the latter being an absolute necessity,
For Kyler Murray’s athletic career, his natural physical gifts have been all that is required for him and his teams to succeed. His leadership was mainly his physical dominance.
Even his first two years in the NFL, he could probably have convinced himself the lack of success was more about the roster around him or injuries than it was about him.
Then December 2021 happened. The Cardinals lost three games in a row and nearly had their postseason dreams dashed. Worst of all, Kyler was not very good at all. In fact, Kyler was outplayed by Jared Goff and Carson Wentz.
That appears to have been the wakeup call Kyler Murray needed.
Too many times in December it looked like K1 was dropping a #2 on his teammates.
On Sunday in Dallas, Kyler Murray was energized and uplifting.
Instead of slumped shoulders and eye rolls, Kyler was all fist pumps and high fives.
It’s almost like Kyler and the Cardinals watched film of the previous month but instead of looking for mechanical or schematic mistakes, they were looking for leadership flaws to clean up.
Then instead of just hoping people notice the Cardinals deliberately, in my opinion, decided to use their powerful social media reach to make sure people noticed.
And good for them, if thats the case. Good for them for recognizing how powerful narratives can be once they take hold. Once Kyler was slapped with the “He’s not a real leader” tag, it could’ve followed him for the rest of his career whether it was accurate or note.
Instead it appears the team decided to proactively address it with Kyler and to make sure the world saw it to prevent any false narratives from taking root.
Or maybe I’m just projecting or making something out of nothing.
It doesn’t really matter because on Sunday we saw a different version of Kyler Murray and its the best version of Kyler Murray as a leader so far.