Cardinals Awards: Comeback Player of the Year

As we continue with Arizona Cardinals On SI's Cardinals postseason awards, there's only one true candidate for the Comeback Player of the Year award: quarterback Kyler Murray.

To read our picks for other awards, you can click on the links below:
Offensive Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Offensive Rookie of the Year
Defensive Rookie of the Year

Before the visceral protests begin, yes, Murray's 2024 season left plenty to be desired, and yes, he technically returned from his ACL tear midway through 2023.

But this highlights a positive problem for the Cardinals: there generally weren't other contributing members of the team who suffered season-ending injuries in 2023 who could have been considered for the award this year.

And it wasn't even all that poor a season from Murray, all things considered. Though it's entirely reasonable to want more out of a franchise quarterback, Murray stayed healthy through all 17 games, threw for 3,851 yards and 21 touchdowns, and completed 68.8% of his passes.

He also added another 572 yards on the ground and five rushing touchdowns. Though it seemed at times that the speedy quarterback was avoiding taking off, he broke free for pair of explosive long touchdown runs against the 49ers and Chargers.

Undoubtedly, Murray put forward some of his best career games in 2024. He threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-10 beatdown of the Los Angeles Rams at home in week two, earning himself a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

He also threw for 307 yards and three scores against the Dolphins, engineering a fourth-quarter game-winning drive. In the season finale, he tied his career high in touchdown passes, tossing four in another blowout victory over San Francisco.

With that in mind, 4,423 total yards and 26 total touchdowns is a respectable season. Unfortunately, Murray also threw 11 interceptions, and generally struggled following the Cardinals' week 11 bye.

Many of his turnovers were costly, and the franchise signal-caller was certainly not without some costly mistakes in the waning weeks.

Those factors must be acknowledged, and conversations have understandable arisen about his long-term viability. However, that analysis is for another article.

It's incredibly difficult to recover from a torn ACL, especially when Murray's speed and agility are such large parts of his game. While he may have been a half-season removed from his recovery, injuries of that severity can linger.

In his first full season under head coach Jonathan Gannon, in offensive coordinator Drew Petzing's admittedly lackluster passing offense, Murray performed well as a whole, even if it wasn't quite the satisfying volume production many had hoped for.

There's zero doubt he'll be Arizona's starting quarterback (barring another injury) heading into 2025, with a hopefully evolved passing attack to help him reach a higher ceiling.