The Most Important Thing Kyler Murray Can Show the Vikings’ Coaches on Day 1

Kyler Murray needs to show signs of genuine improvement in his understanding of the offense. Anything less than a large step forward will arrive as a disappointment to the coaching staff.

Any Kevin O’Connell quarterback needs two things to succeed. First, there’s accuracy. Murray doesn’t appear to have any issue in this area, but do note that he’s being asked to play from within a different style of offense than he’s accustomed to from Arizona. Still, though, we’re talking about a veteran with a career completion number coming in at 67.1%. That’s an excellent number.

But then there’s the second item on Coach O’Connell’s list: beefy mental bandwidth.

Over and over again, players have described how difficult the O’Connell offense can be. That difficulty is especially pronounced for the quarterback since he needs to understand what everybody is doing. Murray has been criticized in the past about his commitment to football, most notable in the homework clause in that Cardinals extension. Murray can firmly shutdown this critique by mastering the O’Connell scheme.

Where Kyler Murray Needs to Have Grown

Nobody should expect Murray to have mastered the scheme by May or June. Everybody who steps into this offense needs time to acclimate. O’Connell, at times, appears to ask too much of his players, something that Wes Phillips appeared to acknowledge earlier in the offseason.

So, give Mr. Murray some grace.

Prior to the summer break, Kyler Murray explained that his plan was to work over the summer, eschewing time off in the process. A lot of veterans opt for rest — fair, I’d say, even wise — but Murray didn’t plan to be among those building sand castles. Rather, Murray said that he was going to spend his time working. After all, he’s in a new environment for the first time since getting chosen in the 2019 NFL Draft. Putting in some extra hours makes a pile of sense.

Upon returning to TCO Performance Center, Kyler Murray needs to show that he lived up to his promise of putting in work.

Presumably, Murray has been throwing during the summer weeks and has been training his body. Well and good. Necessary, even.

More important, though, is the mental component of things.

The Vikings’ coaching staff wants to see a Kyler Murray who has a better understanding of the offense. Show off more confidence with the verbiage and adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Command the huddle with clarity and confidence. Offer a more refined understanding of the offense in the meeting room. All of this will help to inspire confidence in the coaching staff.

All along, Murray has looked like a clunky scheme fit. He’s more of a run-and-gun style of passer, playing fast in a simpler offense while operating out of shotgun. O’Connell is asking him to digest a ton of information, to slow down, and to play from under center. Doing so well will show that he may have appeared to be a clunky scheme fit but that simply didn’t match up with reality.

Football is a cerebral sport. Coaches sometimes get in the way, making things overly complex when what a player needs is simplicity from within the complexity.

Murray, for his part, needs to show from Day 1 onward that he has been doing his part to take on the mental workload that comes with the Kevin O’Connell offense.

Kyler Murray, 28, is entering his eighth NFL season.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

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