Tests on Tuesday confirmed that Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray has torn his ACL and will miss the remainder of the 2022-23 NFL season.
Murray, who played his high school football locally at Allen High School and spent parts of his college career at Texas A&M and Oklahoma, suffered the injury on the third play of Monday night’s 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots.
The injury occurred when Murray took off for a run and appeared to stumble down to the ground without being contacted by a defender. He stayed on the ground after the play and was eventually carted off the field, which immediately raised concerns about the severity of the injury.
Murray had thrown for 2,368 yards, 14 touchdowns, and seven interceptions while completing 66.4 percent of his passes in 11 games this season. He added 418 yards and three scores on the ground.
The dual-threat quarterback had also dealt with wrist and hamstring injuries this season.
Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury spoke on that point when meeting with reporters to make the announcement Tuesday afternoon, adding that it had hindered the progress he had hoped his team would make this season.
“A difficult year, obviously, from the beginning with not doing much in training camp with the wrist and then COVID and then having a tough stretch, offensively not playing as well as we thought we could. And I really thought against the Chargers our rhythm was a little bit better and was excited about this last five games. And, so, to not be able to kind of build off that was disappointing and just tough for all parties involved.”
Former Texas quarterback Colt McCoy replaced Murray and threw for 246 yards and an interception on 27-of-40 passing in the loss to the Patriots.
The Cardinals are 4-9 on the season and have four games left to play. Their season will continue on Sunday, December 18, in Denver against the Broncos.
The 36-year-old McCoy is expected to become the team’s starting quarterback from now on. However, he also underwent an MRI for a head injury after the game.
Kingsbury did not seem worried, saying McCoy “seemed like he was in good, good shape today.”
If McCoy cannot play Sunday, third-string quarterback Trace McSorley will start. McSorley has attempted 14 passes in two games this year.
