Kyler Murray not expected to play without new contract

A few weeks ago, Kyler Murray was adamant that his contractual concerns were behind him, and he'd shifted his focus solely to football.

"I’m an Arizona Cardinal," Murray said at a local charity event in late March. "I’ve done nothing but give my all to the Cardinals and will continue to do that. I’m not really too worried about my future as a Cardinal."

"I let whoever takes care of [contractual stuff] take care of that stuff," he added, regarding his agent's prior demand for a contract extension. "All I worry about is playing good on the field."

But April showers have washed away those sentiments for Murray, and the Cardinals' QB1 appears to have shifted his focus back to his team's monetary expenditures. 

According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, Murray is not expected to play for the Cards without a new contract.

The team hasn't offered Murray a new deal despite his agent Erik Burkhardt's open request months earlier. Burkhardt informed the team that he was pulling that original proposal a few weeks ago.

It's a shocking development surrounding the young signal-caller. And it's got two former NFL vets in complete confusion. 

"I feel like Kyler Murray has no idea what his ultimate end goal is," Emmanuel Acho said Thursday on "Speak For Yourself."

"Everything ended peacefully this season. Postgame presser after the game, Kyler wasn't up in arms blaming Kliff, Kliff wasn't up in arms blaming Kyler. It seemed as though we were going to go into a quick, peaceful offseason, pick up that extension, everybody keep it pushing.

"Then all of a sudden, Kyler Murray preemptively takes down all his pictures of the Arizona Cardinals. Then Kyler Murray puts them all back. In the midst of this, we see Aaron Rodgers get paid, Derek Carr get paid, we see money start to float around. Now Kyler Murray making demands? Who are you to make demands? You haven't won a playoff game, I believe you still have a losing record. You were terrible in the playoffs, and you want to make demands to me?"

Marcellus Wiley was on the same page as his cohost. 

"It's funny that Kyler Murray has an agent, and his agent also represents his head coach. And he's handling this situation worse than Lamar Jackson, whose mom is his agent," Wiley pointed out.

There are reportedly other teams interested in executing a deal for Murray. But Arizona has maintained that he's unavailable via trade. If they don't pay him, Murray will have a fascinating decision to make. The "First Things First" crew was split on how the Cardinals should proceed.

Kevin Wildes contested Murray's modest $5 million salary for 2022 warrants a raise, especially given what some of his peers just signed for.

"What other option do I have? Go into the season with no quarterback? Just play out of the wildcat the entire time?" Wildes said. "No, you got to give Kyler a new deal."

Chris Broussard said Murray's actions this offseason validate the concerns about his leadership and maturity and should give the Cards pause on locking him up to a long-term deal. 

"I got five words for you: Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. Those are the two guys that got big deals after their third year … and they were mistakes."