Kyler ‘fully healthy,’ but listed doubtful by Cards

Last updated: 2023/10/27 at 9:38 PM

BigP Published October 27, 2023

Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff WriterOct 27, 2023, 02:41 PM ET
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TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray does not have an official injury designation for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, but is still listed as doubtful to play.

Earlier Friday, Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon did not rule out the possibility of Murray making his season debut this weekend.

“We’ll see,” Gannon said when asked if Murray would be active on game day.

Murray did not have a practice designation Thursday or Friday. On Wednesday he was listed as practicing in full. Gannon said Murray is “fully healthy.”

Gannon said Murray’s practice designation will impact the way he practices and that Friday and Saturday will be “important” in deciding whether the quarterback is activated to the 53-man roster this weekend.

Murray has not played since suffering a torn ACL in December. He was designated to return from the physically unable to perform list Oct. 18, giving the Cardinals until Nov. 8 to activate Murray to the 53-man roster.

He has worked with practice squad receivers away from current starter Joshua Dobbs and backup Clayton Tune during the open portion of practice. This week, Murray has been making more types of throws than he did last week.

Gannon denied that the Cardinals might be using Murray’s status in any sort of gamesmanship with the Ravens. The Cardinals declined to name a Week 1 starter in the lead-up to their opener against the Washington Commanders, revealing the starter only when Dobbs took the field for the first offensive snap.

The NFL changed the rules at its March annual meeting to require teams to report injury statuses on practice reports and game-day status reports for any players who are on an exempt list or reserve list and have returned to practice.

Gannon was fairly terse when talking about Murray’s status. Over a span of four questions about Murray, Gannon used 15 words to answer.

However, when Gannon was asked what he has seen from Murray on the field in the past two weeks, the coach was a bit more verbose.

“Ball jumps off of his hand, he’s explosive getting out of the pocket, he’s accurate,” Gannon said. “Got good command of the offense right now, and he threads the needle pretty well on some certain throws.”