Former Cardinals GM Steve Keim claps back at Kyler Murray: '$46.1 million a year blame'
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray turned heads recently with comments that some thought were a jab at the team's former General Manager, Steve Keim, and its former head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.
Keim responded to those comments with some words of his own on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on Fox Sports Radio on Tuesday.
Murray's comments had come from a story published by the Cardinals' website earlier this month.
In the story, he said: "I'm going to listen. I'm going to be coachable and I'm going to do it to the best of my ability, but if the (expletive) ain't working, at some point, we all have to look in the mirror … It's a team sport. We all have to be locked in."
Keim apparently took issue with Murray's choice of words, and the implication they created.
"What he said, you don’t love it," Keim said. "When he added the word 'but' in, generally behind a positive, the word 'but' does not end in a positive light. I certainly didn’t want to hear that. Nor do fans want to hear a guy who’s making $46.1 million a year blame anybody but himself. I’m not saying that he’s a guy that blames people, yet at the same time, when you get that bag of cash, everybody expects you to take it on your shoulders."
In the interview, Keim addressed the pressure Murray is under with the Cardinals, and the "predicament" the team could find itself in with the team potentially in the running for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft (and USC QB Caleb Williams the favorite to go No. 1 overall in that draft).
"This is a big year. I would have actually had Kyler in my top five for guys under pressure, because what if they have a bad year?" Keim told Cowherd. "He’s coming off the injury. He’s got to prove himself. What happens, as what people forecast, which they have the No. 1 pick, they’re in a real predicament."
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Keim isn't the first person to question Murray's accountability after his comments.
Fox Sports' Jason McIntyre took issue with the same quote from Murray when he was recently filling in for Cowherd as the host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd last week.
Among his comments on the show?
McIntyre said: "I want to remind you guys, Kyler Murray is a very pampered player, he's one of the most ballyhooed high school football players in Texas football history … I'm sure some people are saying, 'Listen, J-Mac, ease up on this kid! He was a college kid going to the NFL.' Guys, he kept looking to his dad for answers. I heard a story that Kyler Murray's mom was still doing his laundry in Arizona. This is while he's the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. Like, at some point you’ve got to grow up and show accountability."
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Follow Jeremy Cluff on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.