Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray saw his 2021 season come to an unfortunate end last week when he suffered a torn ACL in Monday’s 27–13 loss to the Patriots. Though there’s not much of a silver lining to such a severe knee injury, the 25-year-old did receive a small piece of positive news about his impending recovery.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Murray suffered a “clean” ACL tear, which resulted in no further damage to other ligaments in the knee. The non-contact injury, which occurred early in the game, did come with an associated meniscus tear, but the clean nature of the ACL tear is considered good news for the former No. 1 pick.
Given the new information, Murray could face a recovery as short as 8 1/2 months, according to Rapoport. However, the timeline could be a bit longer, so the Cardinals are likely to place him on the physically unable to perform list to begin training camp. At that point, Arizona can wait to make a decision about whether to keep Murray on the PUP list to begin the 2023 season–which would rule him out for the first four games–or activate him.
