Kyler Murray and Arizona Cardinals general manager Monty Ossenfort have not spoken since the end of the 2025 season, ESPN reported on Tuesday.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier this month that the Cardinals have been searching for a trade partner to replace the 28-year-old Murray and his lucrative contract.
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Oxenford said at the NFL Combine on Tuesday that “all options are on the table” for the Cardinals at the sport’s most prestigious position, noting that Murray and fellow quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett, who started the final 12 games of Arizona’s 3-14 season after Murray suffered a foot injury in Week 5, and Kayden Slovis are under contract through 2026.
“As it relates to this position, as it relates to every position on our team, we’re going to look for every avenue of improvement and we’re going to continue and work through our process,” said Ossenfort, who is in his fourth season as general manager.
When Ossenfort was asked if he sat down with Murray to talk about last year and what the 2019 No. 1 overall pick wants in the future, Ossenfort spoke in general terms about his relationship with the dual-threat quarterback and his brief 2025 campaign.
“I’ve been having good conversations with Keller,” Ossenfort said, “and I would say [last season] Not what Keller wanted. That wasn’t what any of us wanted for the entire season.
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“So when you have a year like the one we had, there’s a lot of room for improvement, so we’ve got to find a way to do that and not just be at that position. [but] In all positions. “
The exact circumstances of Murray’s foot injury, particularly its severity, and whether Murray is expected to return last season are still unclear.
In Murray’s absence, Brissett maintained his form, completing 64.9% of his passes, advancing 3,366 yards, 23 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. But the injury-plagued Cardinals won just one of his starts as their roster thinned and their defense struggled in then-head coach Jonathan Gannon’s third and final season.
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Arizona started out 2-0 but fell to 2-5, losing those five games by a total of 13 points. After a rebound, “Monday Night Football” win over the Dallas Cowboys, the season moved away from Gannon and company.
Former Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur is now at the helm. He and Ossenfort are the latest combination to try to turn around a team that has made just one playoff appearance since the start of the 2016 season.
Murray’s Cardinals career began when he won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and made the Pro Bowl in 2020 and 2021.
But a season-ending ACL tear in 2022 derailed that momentum. Although he got a contract extension that made it more difficult for the Cardinals to trade Murray, he didn’t have the same success in OC Drew Petzing’s running attack that he enjoyed in Kliff Kingsbury’s spread-passing attack.
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According to ESPN, simply cutting Murray outright would result in a dead cap hit of at least $54 million. Conversely, if Arizona trades him at the start of the new league year, it could reportedly save about $35 million in cap space.
According to ESPN, the problem is that there are still three years left on this contract, with about $125 million remaining, including $60 million in guaranteed money.
It certainly looks like the Cardinals and Murray will part ways, but Oxenford will have to get creative and try to pull off a deal that both makes financial sense and generates some type of valuable compensation.
