Kyler Murray Gets Major Prediction from Former Vikings CB
Minnesota Vikings QB Kyler Murray and legendary CB Patrick Peterson had two seasons of overlap in Arizona on the Cardinals. Now that Kyler Murray is in Minnesota, they will both now also be known as Minnesota Vikings, to some extent.
Murray obviously hasn’t played a game for the Vikings yet, but Patrick Peterson has two seasons of experience in Minnesota. Peterson appeared in 31 total games, including the 2022 Wild Card round loss against the Giants. In those games, Peterson totaled 6 interceptions and 20 PBUs. While he wasn’t the prime Pat Pete we all knew in Arizona, he was still a serviceable corner during his time wearing the professional purple, not to be confused with the collegiate purple of his LSU Tigers.
Recently, Cardinals insider Kyle Odegard was nice enough to forward me some information regarding Patrick Peterson’s opinions on the Murray Era in Minnesota.
Kyler Murray Will Win QB Competition, if You Ask Patrick Peterson
Patrick Peterson had an interview with casino.ca‘s D.J. Siddiqi, and Peterson gave his take on the Vikings’ QB competition between Murray and J.J. McCarthy.
“I believe (Murray) will win the starting job just because he’s a proven quarterback. He’s a guy who’s a Pro Bowler in this league, a former first pick in this league, and we know those guys can hold on to that car for a long, long time. J.J. McCarthy is a first round pick as well, but the number one pick carries a little bit more weight, and I just feel like Kyler Murray is more proven.”
Maybe there’s a little bias from Patrick Peterson for one of his old teammates, but he wasn’t really telling any lies. Kyler Murray has a bit more of a background to support him going into the QB competition, although J.J. McCarthy hasn’t really had many chances to build up his resume. Granted, that’s a whole different issue in itself.
Peterson’s confidence in Murray is understandable and logical, as is his take on the marriage of Murray’s abilities and Kevin O’Connell’s offense.
Kyler Murray and Kevin O’Connell Could Be in ‘Sticky Situation’, per Patrick Peterson
Peterson didn’t have the most inspiring take on the mesh between Kyler Murray’s playstyle and Kevin O’Connell’s style of offense.
“I played with Kevin O’Connell and saw how he operated the offense, saw how he was able to unlock Kirk (Cousins). I know he’d been with Kirk before, so it was kind of like a match made in heaven, because the way he called the games, it kind of featured Kirk in his best mannerisms.
My biggest concern for Kyler Murray in this situation is: is he going to be able to adapt to how Kevin O’Connell wants to call plays, or is Kevin going to have to adapt to how Kyler Murray wants the offense to be run? It’s going to be a very, very sticky situation.”
The situation that Peterson brings up is the big question regarding the Minnesota Vikings and the Kyler Murray era; will O’Connell adapt, or will he expect Murray to run the offense as it is?
In O’Connell’s defense, his passing scheme has been proven to be very effective. However, good coaches adapt to the strengths of his players. For Murray, his greatest strength is his elusiveness. Will O’Connell sprinkle in more bootlegs, options, or designed QB keepers? It still feels like it will be forever before we find out, but Week 1 is only around two months away now.
