Kyler Murray Was Either Fine, or There Were Legitimate Concerns Depending on Where You Listen

Kyler Murray is the topic of conversation with the NFL Draft. It started with his size, and his decision about baseball. But it’s now about his personality and outlook as a franchise cornerstone. Charley Casserly started it anew yesterday by talking about how multiple teams expressed major concerns.

“[t]his was not good. These were the worst comments I ever got on a high-rated quarterback and I’ve been doing this a long time. Leadership–not good. Study habits–not good. The board work–below not good. Not good at all in any of those areas, raising major concerns about what this guy is going to do … This guy is not outstanding in those areas and it showed up in the interview.”

This morning, Murray’s college coach Lincoln Riley appeared on the Dan Patrick Show and had this to say:

Notably, it was an earlier appearance by Murray on the Dan Patrick Show that raised some cause for concern about Murray’s preparation and interaction with the media. He did not come off well in that one. Clarence Hill also says several teams are still interested.

But then, Matt Lombardo of nj.com has this, citing a head coach and scout who, while not confirming it to the extreme language used by Casserly, acknowledged coming out less than impressed.

"One NFL coach, on the condition of anonymity, told NJ Advance Media that he walked out of his meeting with Murray at the NFL Combine questioning the potential No. 1 pick’s maturity."

"When presented with NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly’s comments, the coach said Casserly wasn’t far off."

"“That’s fairly accurate,” he said. “Maybe not to that extreme. It might be a little overblown, but there’s definitely some truth there.”"

Look, as with any thing this time of year, you have to question motivations when things come out. Maybe someone is trying to poison the well. But then again, I would point out that if a team is interested, they probably directly got to meet with Murray and make their own assessment.

It’s also possible that Murray performed poorly in some of his interviews, and that these things are being conducted by individuals, and opinions are like a certain body part. Everyone has them, and everyone has a different impression of the player. I suspect there is smoke here where some teams came out less than impressed, and others are full steam ahead.