| Take a really close, good look at the NFL Draft tonight, specifically at the moment when the No. 1 pick and his new team start talking about each other, with beaming smiles and a brand-new baseball cap in place. You can guarantee, of course, that there will be an overdose of platitudes to the sweetest degree, praise upon praise, and golden visions of a glorious future. Player loves team. Team loves player. Love is all around (remember that song?). For now. Yes, take a look, because in virtually every case, the highest point of the relationship between drafter and draftee will be at that precise time, never to be improved. The only time franchise and player can ever love each other more is if they can later get to a Super Bowl together, and that doesn’t happen often. The very nature of things is that the relationship between star players and the teams that they shine for becomes stretched and often strained, and it is a direct result of the real factors that govern the way NFL teams do business. Building the best squad under the constraints of a salary cap essentially means that the most successful teams are the ones that get players to perform at a level far above what their income would indicate. Players, understandably, given the brutal physical demands of the game, want to redress that imbalance and get paid as much as they can during the small and unpredictable career window they have. This means that even if everything goes swimmingly well, there are going to be conflicting factors at play. And that whole love fest that you see on draft night? Yeah, that’s probably never to be repeated, however much the figures involved might like each other on a personal level. Take the Kyler Murray situation with the Arizona Cardinals. Murray was the No. 1 pick out of Oklahoma in 2019 and has blossomed into a fine NFL quarterback who already boasts two Pro Bowl selections. No Cardinals fan is wishing they could turn back the clock and change things up. They’re not regretting that the team didn’t take Daniel Jones instead. It has worked out as well as could have been expected. In terms of a retrospective grade, it is an A, if not an A+. The Cardinals have improved each year since, and so has their fleet-footed signal-caller. Last season began with a 7-0 flourish, realized a first playoff appearance since 2015, and ended with a defeat to the eventual Super Bowl champion. But despite the success of the Murray pick — truthfully, in part because of it — there is some tension in the air. At the end of the campaign, Murray deleted all mention of the Cardinals from his social media pages, only to later reinstate the posts. A new contract has been spoken about but hasn’t gotten done. Murray skipped voluntary workouts recently, and the latest scuttlebutt is that he will sit out the 2022 campaign if a long-term agreement is not hashed out. Arizona picked up his fifth-year option for 2023 as a formality this week, but a lot of work needs to be done. And here we are. Three years on from the grins and gushing of draft night, years filled with a steady stream of positive developments, and the love that was there in April 2019 is long forgotten. Sure, Cardinals GM Steve Keim talks positively about Murray and says there is no chance they would trade him. Murray says he wants to be in the desert for a long time. But there is a sense of tactical positioning about everything that is uttered publicly by either side. They are essentially adversaries right now, even though they both want the same kind of success. Murray is thought to want a salary of $45 million a year to put him firmly in the mix with the highest-paid players in the league. Arizona doesn’t want to give that sort of money without at least a postseason victory to show for it. If Murray does hold out, it throws a major wrench in the Cardinals’ long-term plan. This upcoming season was always identified as an optimum time to make a serious charge, with Murray having had three years of experience and set to collect just $5.5 million. Now? The impasse may be set to continue for a while longer. Unless the Cardinals can quickly get their head around paying what Murray wants, resolution may be a forlorn hope. With Deshaun Watson averaging a fully guaranteed $46 million per year and Derek Carr at $40.5 million, it is hard to see Murray’s representatives shifting from a demand of $45 million, especially given the speed with which the QB financial market has escalated. It is in danger of turning into a bit of a mess, and the Arizona fan base is starting to grumble about the uncertainty. Those dreamy vibes from the 2019 draft have long since passed, just as they always do. Murray’s tale is an interesting one, and it will be a major talking point over the coming weeks. But it is far from a unique one. Those hopes of brighter times ahead that occupy every draft sometimes do come to fruition. But those feel-good vibes where everyone is on the same page? Mostly, they’re gone forever the moment they happen. |
