Kyler Murray

BIOGRAPHY

Kyler Murray was born on August 7th, 1997 in Bedford, Texas. He is a quarterback in the National Football League.

Murray attended Allen High School in Allen, Texas.  As the starting quarterback, he led his team to three straight state championships and finished with a perfect 42-0 record. As a senior in 2014, he was named the Gatorade Football Player of the year and was ranked by ESPN and 247Sports as a five-star recruit, and the best dual-threat quarterback in his class. During his high school career, he was named a 2x USA Today All-American, 2x MR. Texas Football, and USA Today Offensive player of the year. He committed to Texas A&M University to play college football and college baseball. His father Kevin Murray was also a quarterback at Texas A&M from 1983 to 1986.  Murray also played baseball and was considered one of the top prospects for the 2015 Major League Baseball draft. In high school, Murray was a shortstop and a second baseman. He was the first player ever to be selected for both the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game and the Under Armour All-America Football Game.

While at Texas A&M, Murray competed with Kyle Allen for the starting quarterback spot. In his first start, Murray threw for 223 yards and rushed for 156 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown. He joins Cam Newton as the only Southeastern Conference quarterbacks in the past 20 years to gain over 100 yards passing and rushing, including a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in their first career start. Murray ultimately announced that he would transfer to the University of Oklahoma.

At Oklahoma, Murray played backup to the eventual Heisman Trophy winner and first overall NFL draft pick, Baker Mayfield. However, he did get playing time and impressed when he was given the chance.  In his first start at Oklahoma, Kyle was 10 of 11 for 149 yards and a touchdown, which came in the second half against UTEP.  Two weeks later, against Tulane, he hit all three pass attempts for 103 yards and a touchdown. In 2018 he was chosen as the starting quarterback and led his team to a Big 12 Championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. During the 2018 season, Murray threw for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns. He was awarded the Heisman Trophy in December 2018, giving Oklahoma back to back Heisman Trophy winners.  In 2018, he joined Clemson's Deshaun Watson, as the only FBS players to ever record at least 4,000 passing yards and at least 1,000 rushing yards in a season. He also became the first FBS player to average at least 300 passing yards (311.5) and at least 60 rushing yards (71.5) per game in a full season.

Murray also played for the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team in 2017 as a left fielder. He had a .122 batting average and six runs batted in (RBIs) in 27 games In 2018, playing as a centerfielder, Murray batted .296 with ten home runs, 47 RBIs, and ten stolen bases. Despite Murray's reported intention to continue his football career, the Oakland Athletics selected Murray with the ninth overall selection of the 2018 MLB draft. He signed a contract with the Athletics which includes a $4.66 million signing bonus. Before his junior year with the football team, Murray said that he would report to spring training in 2019 to begin his professional baseball career. However, following his Heisman Trophy-winning 2018 season, he would forgo his senior year and enter the NFL Draft. The A's retain his rights, should he return to baseball. In January 2019, Murray announced that he would enter the 2019 NFL Draft On February 11th, he announced his decision to focus on his football career, forgoing baseball.

Kyle Murray was selected in the first round with the first overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft. He will reunite with head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who had been recruiting Murray since his Sophomore year of high school. The pick also made Murray the first player to be drafted in the first round of both the NFL and MLB drafts.  The selection will mark the first time that two quarterbacks from the same university have gone in the first round in successive seasons, with Baker Mayfield also being selected first in the 2018 NFL Draft. Murray is the first sub-six foot tall quarterback chosen number one in an NFL draft.

In the year 2020, Murray was selected to his first pro-bowl and in the year 2021, he made his first playoff game where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. In July 2022 Murray signed a 5-year $230.5 million contract extension to stay with the Cardinals with $160 million being guaranteed.