The Cardinals have informed quarterback Kyler Murray of his release, according to multiple reports. The transaction will occur on the first day of the league year March 11.
The Cardinals have attempted to trade Murray.
They owe him $36.8 million guaranteed in 2026, and another $19.5 million in guarantees would have been triggered for 2027 if he were on the roster on March 15.
So, as expected, Murray will be in search of a new home. Since Murray has offset language in his contract, his new team will pay him the minimum.
Murray released a statement on social media, writing, “To everyone that supported me and showed kindness to my family and I during my time in AZ, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I wanted nothing more than to be the one to end the 77-year drought for this organization. I am sorry I failed us. I wish this community and my brothers nothing but the best. I am no stranger to adversity. I am prepared for whatever’s next. I trust in God and my work ethic. I truly believe my best ball is in front of me, and I look forward to proving it. Godspeed.”
Murray, the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, has missed 21 of a possible 51 games over the past three seasons.
In his seven-year career in Arizona, Murray went 38-48-1 in the regular season and the Cardinals made the playoffs once. They never won a playoff game. He made two Pro Bowls (2020, 2021) and completed 67.1 percent of his passes for 20,460 yards with 121 touchdowns and 60 interceptions.
Jimmy Garoppolo could be making a comeback.
Not that he ever left. But he hasn’t been a starting quarterback since the Raiders benched him for Aidan O’Connell midway through the 2023 season.
Now, Garoppolo could be in play to fill the void created by the looming departure of Kyler Murray from the Cardinals.
Via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, the Cardinals are interested in Garoppolo. And for good reason. New head coach Mike LaFleur comes from the Rams, where Garoppolo has spent the last two seasons as the understudy to Matthew Stafford.
“That’s his guy,” an unnamed source told Fowler regarding Mike LaFleur’s opinion of Garoppolo.
The Cardinals also have Jacoby Brissett under contract for 2026. He’s due to make $5.44 million in 2026, with another $1 million if he takes 50 percent of the snaps and $1 million more if the percentage lands at 65 or higher. On the fifth day of the 2026 league year, $1.5 million of Brissett’s base salary becomes fully guaranteed.
Per Fowler, the Rams would welcome Garoppolo back as the No. 2 to Stafford. Garoppolo also is in play to replace Malik Willis as the No. 2 to Jordan Love in Green Bay.
Garoppolo has 64 career starts. The bulk of those came during five-plus years with the 49ers. In 2019, he led San Francisco to the Super Bowl.
For a brief time in 2018, Garoppolo was the highest-paid player in the league, at $27.5 million per year. He made $3 million last season with the Rams.
If the Cardinals keep Brissett and sign Garoppolo, it’ll be a reunion — 10 years later — of the quarterbacks who split four starts during Tom Brady’s #Deflategate suspension.
In little more than a week, the negotiating period will begin for impending free agents. And quarterback Malik Willis will undoubtedly be agreeing to terms quickly.
With the Packers having no real shot at keeping Willis as the No. 2 to Jordan Love, the tampering will be even more rampant than usual. A deal may already be done, now that the full week of rampant tampering and excessive consumption of bovine body parts in Indianapolis has ended.
So what will Willis get? One theory is that Willis will land in the range of $20 million to $25 million per year on a two- or three-year deal.
That’s at the lower end of the veteran starter scale. Last year, the Jets gave Justin Fields a two-year, $40 million deal with $30 million of it fully guaranteed. Although Fields played more than Willis (Fields had 50 appearances and 44 starts through four seasons; Willis has 22 and six), Willis played very well in limited opportunities during his two years in Green Bay.
Of course, if enough teams want Willis, the money could go higher. Maybe he could get to $30 million per year.
Last year, Sam Darnold parlayed 14 regular-season wins into $33.5 million over three years with Seattle. But the Seahawks didn’t have much if any competition for Darnold. The more suitors for Willis, the more he can make.
The ideal arrangement for Willis, if the number is south of $30 million per year, would be to have a very low cap number early in the deal and a bigger one later — big enough to give Willis the leverage to force an extension if things go well.
As mentioned earlier in the day, the Dolphins and Cardinals provide an important litmus test for his perceived potential. If neither wants him, it’s a red flag. If both want him, more should get involved. And he could end up with a better deal than expected.
He was the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. And he’s destined to be looking for a new team.
So where will quarterback Kyler Murray’s career continue?
Barring a trade, which is unlikely unless the Cardinals pay a bunch of money and/or attach a draft pick to the sale of cap space, he’ll be cut. The Cardinals already owe Murray $36.8 million for 2026, with another $22.55 million hitting the books in the middle of March. The moment he was placed on injured reserve while recovering from a foot injury, the message was clear — Murray had played his last game for the Cardinals.
For plenty of coaches, there’s a minimum height requirement at the position, and Murray isn’t tall enough to ride the ride. Thus, as a threshold matter, a prospective employer has to be comfortable with Murray’s stature.
Last year, as the trade deadline approached and we poked around regarding the possibility of a trade, we heard that Murray was interested in joining the Raiders or the Vikings. The draw to Las Vegas, however, was offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. He’s now back at the college level.
Would the Vikings want Murray? They could possibly get him for the league minimum of $1.3 million, with the Cardinals paying the balance of his $36.8 million pay. (That’s what the Steelers did in 2024, when signing Russell Wilson and sticking the Broncos with most of his compensation.) The bigger question is whether coach Kevin O’Connell believes Murray would fit the Vikings’ offense.
Here’s another intriguing possibility, in our view: The Falcons. Coach Kevin Stefanski has no apparent qualms regarding shorter quarterbacks; Dillon Gabriel started multiple games for Stefanski and the Browns last year. And Atlanta has plenty of potent offensive weapons, from Bijan Robinson to Drake London to Kyle Pitts Sr.
The X factor in Atlanta will be president of football operations Matt Ryan, a former quarterback who measures six feet, five inches. Ryan may prefer a more traditional quarterback to hold down the fort while Michael Penix Jr. recovers from an ACL tear and the Falcons figure out whether he’s still the guy.
Still, the price could be just right on a one-year deal, for the Vikings, Falcons, or any other team currently looking for a new starter. And the Cardinals will likely be paying Murray a lot of money to play for another team in 2026.
It’s amazing the relationship lasted as long as it did. The Cardinals made it to the playoffs once in Murray’s seven seasons. And the ill-advised homework clause in his second contract drove a wedge that was never going to go away.
The cash and cap realities of that second deal made it hard to sever ties. Even now, it will leave a mark on Arizona’s books.
We’ll see whether Murray and his career record of 38-49-1 can make a mark in a new NFL city.
The value of the next contract for quarterback Malik Willis remains to be seen. It will be driven ultimately by the number of suitors.
And the involvement, or not, of two potential franchises should say plenty about the broader market for Willis. Whether and to what extent the Dolphins and Cardinals pursue Willis will be a key litmus test as to his perceived potential as a full-time starter.
In Miami, two former Packers now run the show. And, as coach Jeff Hafley explained this week on PFT Live, he and G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan are in close alignment. If they believe in Willis after two years of having full access to him, they’ll pursue him. If they don’t pursue him, they don’t believe.
Obviously, they need a quarterback. Willis would be a perfect fit particularly over the next two years, if a reasonable but fair contract can be negotiated during the cap wreckage of the Tua Tagovailoa deal. It all comes down to whether two men who were able to watch him, to study him, to get to know him for two entire football seasons believe he’s equipped to be a high-level, week-in, week-out starting quarterback.
Ditto for the Cardinals, indirectly. They need a quarterback. New coach Mike LaFleur’s brother, Matt, coached Willis for two years. Assuming Matt will share his views with Mike about Malik, Mike will act accordingly. Especially since Mike needs a quarterback, too.
That said, it’s possible Mike LaFleur will be overruled by G.M. Monti Ossenfort and/or owner Michael Bidwill (he’s the team president, after all) regarding Willis. It would be foolish to do so, but some teams do foolish things.
It would be potentially foolish for a team that doesn’t know Willis to pursue him if the Dolphins or Cardinals aren’t. Those are the two teams in the best position to know whether Willis is “the guy.” If they don’t believe it, it’s buyer beware for the other quarterback-needy teams.
