April 25th, 2019 
Matt Loede 
Posted in 
After months of speculation the pick is in – and the Cardinals on Thursday drafted quarterback Kyler Murray from Oklahoma with the first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Murray is the second straight first-round pick by the Cards after taking Josh Rosen in the first round last season.
Some notes from 247 Sports on Murray:
HISTORIC COLLEGE PRODUCTION
Through eight games, Murray is having one of the best quarterbacking seasons in college football history, completing 73.2 percent of his passes for 2,329 yards, 28 touchdowns and three interceptions while adding 474 yards and six more touchdowns on the ground. He’s averaging an absurd 12.7 yards per pass attempt. With Murray at the helm, Oklahoma is averaging 48.9 points per game and a nation best 8.9 yards per play, which would be the NCAA record.
The last two seasons saw Mayfield, Murray’s predecessor at Oklahoma and the eventual top pick in 2018’s draft, comfortably break the NCAA record for passer efficiency rating set by Russell Wilson in 2011. Along with Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa (238.8 rating), Murray is on pace to smash Mayfield’s mark.
It’s difficult to contextualize just how good Tagovailoa and Murray have been from a historical perspective. The gap between Murray’s current rating of 227.34 and Mayfield’s 2017 rating (198.9) is equal to distance between that record mark and the the 58th best rating. In short, it’s cavernous.
It should come as no surprise that Tagovailoa and Murray are Nos. 1 and 2 in about every Heisman poll. In any other season, Murray would be a runaway favorite. It’s worth noting that the last nine quarterbacks to win the Heisman have been picked in the first round. Every Heisman finalist quarterback since 2014 has also gone in the first.
With Tagovailoa a true sophomore, Murray is the most productive and efficient draft-eligible quarterback in college football, by a good margin. Only West Virginia’s Will Grier comes remotely close to Murray’s numbers to this point. And that’s not counting Murray’s rushing ability.
And let’s not forget about this Tweet from February:
Y’all are having fun with speculation, but… pic.twitter.com/dy4NbJ82iB
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) February 12, 2019
