Shame on us: We haven’t touched our Tuesday Teasings column since July! However, we are today with a follow-up piece on NFL quarterback Kyler Murray, a sports persona we haven’t though much about in the last six-plus years. Murray made the decision years ago to forego an MLB career in favor of an NFL one, and we called it a mistake in February 2019. With so much time passing by us, we can re-assess his choice now.

We listed three reasons why Murray made the wrong decision: money, in-sport injuries, and long-term health. We were dead wrong on the money, as he has made so much cash in his middling NFL career that it easily tops whatever he could have made playing baseball, if and when he ever made it to the major leagues. There certainly is a ridiculous premium paid for NFL QBs, and he will live comfortably forever now, easily.

Now in his seventh season with the Arizona Cardinals, Murray already has banked $170M. He’s now in the second year of a new, five-year $230M contract, as well, that runs through 2028. Consider he is just 38-47-1 as a starter in the NFL, and he’s done very well for himself, thus showing us were very wrong about the financial considerations. Of course, when we wrote that, he was not drafted yet, and so much has changed.

His signing bonus as a rookie helped him get $30M for his first three years in the NFL together, but since then, the salaries have gone through the roof in the league. However, even that $30M included more guaranteed money than he might have seen playing baseball, since it was instant—and in MLB, he could have failed ever more than he has in football without getting paid in the process (his calculated gamble).

Again, his record is mediocre, and it includes just one postseason game, a 23-point loss to the eventual Super Bowl champions in 2021. That remains the only season that he has posted a winning record (9-5) as a starter. Do the math, and you can see he’s been pretty bad at that leadership thing. His 92.5 QB rating looks good on the surface, but for the modern-day game, it’s actually not that great. It’s average, at best, really.

Murray won some Rookie of the Year nods, but we didn’t choose him in our analysis. In his best season (2021), he still finished more than 11 points in QB rating behind the league leader. And he’s been injured so much, he’s earned votes for “Comeback Player of the Year” in both 2023 and 2024, which is funny if you think about it. He made it through his first two seasons without missing a game, but since then it’s been …

Yeah. He missed three games in 2021, six games in 2022, and nine games in 2023, before playing all 17 games in 2024 again—at age 27. If this is his prime coming up, he needs to deliver a lot to compensate for those missed 18 games, which is basically a full season of starts that he’s been collecting cash on. Needless to say, this doesn’t make him much of a fan favorite, but he can cry himself to sleep on a huge pile of money.

Again, his 92.5 QB rating makes him look good (“25th all time!“), but that stat is so inflated now that there are 14 (!) other active QBs above him on that list in a 32-team league. Do that math now and figure out just how “good” Murray is—and whether or not he’s worth all that money. Probably not when Kirk Cousins, Tua Tagovailoa, Jimmy Garoppolo, Dak Prescott, and Deshaun Watson have out performed him so far.

The ankle sprain in 2021, the hamstring injury in 2022, and the ACL tear that cost him so much time in 2023 are going to take their toll on him, too, as time goes on. One more major injury, and he’s going to have a lot of trouble getting around later in life. Yet again, he will be drowning in undeserved pay by the time he retires, so again, maybe Murray comes out on top of the equation when all things are factored in and done.

So, on the money front, we were very wrong, and on the injury/health angle, we have been mostly correct so far. His team is off to a 2-1 start this season, which should be 3-0 except for the defense choking on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers in a key division matchup. Losing 16-15 on a last-second field goal hurts, but when the QB can muster only 15 points against a defense without its best player for most of the game?

You don’t deserve to be 3-0. And Murray has been surrounded by offensive talent his whole career, too, so there’s no excuses there. No matter which way you slice it, on the field, his career has been mediocre, and he’s been overpaid for achieving so little. He suffered major injuries in the process, and only time will tell how much long-term medical attention he’s going to need. But he has all the money in the world, so …

Editor’s Note: We did agree with the Heisman vote for Murray in 2018, surprisingly. So, there’s that, too.