The Arizona Cardinals and Kyler Murray went into this offseason on considerably rocky terms. We saw Murray scrub his Instagram page of Cardinals content while the Cardinals were leaking disparaging reports about Murray’s work ethic. It was a whole thing.
Though Murray and the Cardinals were ultimately able to agree on a massive $230.5 million contract extension, it certainly seems like the Cardinals have some concerns about Murray’s preparation habits. So much so that the Cardinals actually put an “Independent Study” requirement into Murray’s contract.
A screenshot of the addendum hit Twitter on Monday, and we could see that the Cardinals are requiring Murray to spend at least four hours per game week preparing on his own time.
Contracts are about give-and-take. One example from #AZCardinals QB Kyler Murray’s $230.5M contract: There is an addendum that requires 4 hours of “independent study” per game week. It was important to the team making a commitment at that level, thus it was important to Murray. pic.twitter.com/VqrkvoBQLJ
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 25, 2022
The contract even mentioned specific activities that wouldn’t qualify as independent study (TV, video games, internet use), which read like a not-so-subtle callout to Murray’s game-week preparation. After all, if Murray was consistently meeting that preparation standard on his own, you wouldn’t see the Cardinals specifically require it in his contract. They’d focus on other things like don’t play basketball or ride motorcycles.
Then again, the Cardinals investing a quarter-billion dollars in Murray while simultaneously requiring him in writing to do basic quarterback homework made for a strange juxtaposition. Why are you signing a player to one of the game’s biggest contracts if you’re *that* worried about him? I’m sure Steve Keim will hear that question pretty soon.
NFL fans understandably had plenty of thoughts about the addendum.
