Why the Arizona Cardinals gave Kyler Murray his new contract

As reported Thursday afternoon, the Arizona Cardinals signed quarterback Kyler Murray to a five-year contract extension, making the passer one of the highest-paid players in the NFL. Under the terms of the deal, Murray will earn $30 million in the first year, $69 million over two years and $106.15 million over three years, keeping him signed in Arizona through 2028.

Over the past few months, speculation over Murray’s status in Arizona was one of the hotter topics in NFL circles. From reading into Murray scrubbing his social media, to the quarterback skipping the start of OTAs, every move made by the quarterback was put through the prism of what it meant for his status with the Cardinals.

Now, we know what his status truly is.

The question now becomes, why did the Cardinals make this decision, and what does it mean about their future. In many ways, Arizona truly did not have a ton of options. The economics of the NFL today indicate that when you draft a young quarterback you build around him while he is on his rookie deal, and hope he plays at a high enough level to warrant the long-term deal.

Over his time in the desert, Murray has shown enough to secure that deal. And what he has shown comes down to two words.

Explosive plays.

Our own Doug Farrar has argued for the past few seasons that the NFL today is all about explosive plays. You have to create them on offense, and you have to eliminate them as much as possible on defense.

Murray’s ability to generate explosive plays for the Cardinals is a huge reason for this deal.

Of course, when it comes to Murray his ability to create outside of the pocket comes to mind first, and certainly there is more than enough evidence of this trait. Take this play against the Detroit Lions, that finds Murray fighting in the pocket as long as possible before vacating the pocket and rolling to his right, where he finds Christian Kirk working across the field in a scramble drill setting:

Another example is this play against the…