When Larry Fitzgerald decided to come back for a 17th season, he cited the development of quarterback Kyler Murray as one of the reasons.
That was moving for Murray, and incentive to keep working to improve on his productive first season.
After announcing his decision to come back for another year, Fitzgerald spoke glowingly of Murray in an interview with the Golf Channel.
“He’s a stud. He’s going to be a special player for years to come,” Fitzgerald said. “Playing receiver with him makes it easy.”
Hearing that, and seeing Fitzgerald tweet about the Cardinals’ young core on offense was gratifying for Murray.
“It’s big. It’s surreal at the same time because that’s Larry Fitzgerald,” Murray told Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. “He’s one of the best to ever play the game so for me, that’s obviously a big deal. I’m glad he’s back. I’m glad he has that faith in me.
“I saw his tweet talking about that young nucleus we’ve got. That was cool. I’m just glad he’s back because he means a lot. He meant a lot to me, a lot to the organization and the fans. He’s got a lot left in him. He’s a big brother to a lot of us. If he was not on the team, it would feel a little weird.”
There were high expectations of Murray when the Cardinals chose him first overall, and he met them. He became just the sixth quarterback in league history, and the second rookie, with at least 3,500 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in the same season.
Now as long as he has Fitzgerald to throw to — and he’s not playing baseball — he’ll have a chance to build on that.