Kyler Murray Remains Cardinals Captain amid Injury: 'He's Our Franchise Quarterback'

The Arizona Cardinals named quarterback Kyler Murray, who is recovering from a torn ACL and will miss at least the first four games of the season on the injured list, as one of their team captains on Monday.

"He's our franchise quarterback," head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters. "And everything that I want our captains to be, he demonstrates it."

It is the fourth straight season that Murray was named a captain. Running back James Conner, left tackle D.J. Humphries, linebacker Kyzir White, safety Budda Baker and linebacker Dennis Gardeck were named the remaining captains.

"He's earned [being a captain]," Humphries said. "The work that he put in the summer that we all got to watch, it's been impressive and it's going to come out tenfold when we get back on that field."

Murray, 26, is a two-time Pro Bowler and threw for 2,368 yards, 14 touchdowns, seven interceptions and completed 66.4 percent of his passes in 11 games last season, as both hamstring issues and eventually a torn ACL forced him to miss time. He also rushed for 418 yards and three scores.

It was an interesting year for Murray, to say the least. Before the 2022 season he signed a five-year, $230.5 million contract extension but one that initially included a homework clause that required him to study on his own time for at least four hours each week. After the clause went public, the Cardinals removed it from his deal.

But the Cardinals struggled with and without Murray last season, going 3-8 in his starts and 1-5 without him, leading to Kliff Kingsbury's firing. Gannon took over the position, citing Murray as the reason he took the job:

So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Murray was enlisted as a captain yet again. The bigger questions at this point are when he'll be able to play again, and whether he'll have the same mobility and escapability after his ACL tear.