Kyler Murray has signed his rookie deal with the Arizona Cardinals and has been financially validated with his choice of playing professional football rather than baseball.
Murray, who was taken No. 1 overall by Arizona, is getting approximately $23.5 million in his signing bonus and $35.1 million guaranteed as part of his deal. Financial figures were estimated by Joel Corry for CBS Sports based on the rookie scale.
Back in April, a report said the Oakland A’s, who had given Murray $4.66 million in a signing bonus, offered him $14 million guaranteed on top of that to try and sway him to choose baseball. He declined so he could pursue an NFL career. Murray also had to repay the bonus to the A’s, which is easy to do now.
Though the financial aspect of Murray’s decision has paid off, the more important question arises: which sport would he have been better off trying as a player? We’ll find out over the coming years how his NFL development goes. If things go as he hopes, we’ll never get to find out just how good he could have been at baseball.
