Kyler Murray Concerns Debunked: Interview with Cardinals Insider Kyle Odegard Pt. 1
A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Arizona Cardinals insider Kyle Odegard to talk some Kyler Murray on an episode of my show, The Skolcial Network. If you like football shows that don’t take themselves too serious, and aren’t afraid to be a bit more “unbuttoned”, then it’s the show for you.
I was joined by my former Skolcial Network co-host and current SKOR North talent Jason Harmon, who aided me with asking Odegard the hard-hitting questions about Kyler Murray, his “character concerns”, and other things that worried Vikings fans may bring up.
Be sure to stay up to date with this series, as we will be releasing the written version of the interview in installments. With that being said, let’s get right into it.
Kyler Murray’s ‘Character Issues’ Are Overblown
The first thing we asked Kyle Odegard was concerning the legitimacy of Kyler Murray’s character issues. The Call of Duty jokes, the infamous film clause, and the questions surrounding Murray’s commitment to the game. Mr. Odegard went very in-depth for us.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think so. I think it made a lot of waves because of this. A lot of it goes back to ownership, sand Michael Bidwell’s the owner of the Cardinals. He’s the one that put [the film clause] in the contract.
From people I talked to at the time, Steve Keim, the GM, Kliff Kingsbury, the coach, they didn’t want it in there. Obviously, Kyler wasn’t wanting it, but the way it happened is it got put in. Kyler didn’t think doing four hours of independent study or whatever it was a week mattered, so he was fine doing it. But nobody quite realized the how much it would blow up and how much of a PR disaster it was for everybody, to the fact that they had to pull it within a week.”
This is a big detail, seeing as Kyler Murray is simply one of the most “dunked-on” players in the NFL when it comes to his off-field “antics”. I’m not really sure why it’s a big deal as to why an early-20s young man liked to play some video games, but that’s the standard we hold these athletes too. Sure, Murray was technically a bit in the wrong for saying what he said about the film study publicly, but again, that’s just a young kid saying too much.
Kyler Murray’s ‘Character Issues’ Shouldn’t Be a Concern, but He Isn’t Perfect
Odegard touched on this, as he never claimed Kyler Murray to be perfect, especially when he was younger. He also revealed what he believes to be the reason that the film clause was put in the contract originally.
“You know when he was 22, 23. could he have been more studious? I’m sure he could have been, but now he’s you know half decade from that. I’m sure he does better with the studying. you look at anybody’s arc as a person, like in your early 20s, are you going to be the most studious person compared to when you are five years into your career, eight years into your career?
I think he’s naturally gotten better at that stuff. But I don’t think it was ever such an issue that they needed to have something in the contract. I think that was just part of the personality of the owner to kind of want to have a say in what’s going on and to throw his weight around a little bit.”
As Odegard mentioned, the film clause was such a disaster that it got removed in a week. Although Murray has yet to experience playoff success, the character issues have been quite overblown. He might not be a “rah-rah” leader, but to say he isn’t good at his job is factually incorrect.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t cover his fit in Kevin O’Connell offense or Murray’s lack of postseason success, you’re in luck. As previously mentioned, stay tuned for further installments to this series, or have a watch of the full interview.
