The NFL Draft is just two months away, yet there still is not a consensus top quarterback in the class and may never be. That is probably one of the main reasons Kyler Murray is choosing football over baseball, and his decision could pay off in a huge way.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported on Monday that evaluations for quarterbacks in this year’s draft are “all over the place,” both between different teams and within each individual team’s draft room. There are four players who are believed to be in the running to be the top QB off the board, and Murray is among them.
First look from Indianapolis, where players begin arriving today for the scouting combine and the QB field is wide open. @gmfb @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/tS40fFtZtz
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 25, 2019
Murray is competing with Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, Missouri’s Drew Lock and Duke’s Daniel Jones. While all of the aforementioned players are more prototypical NFL quarterbacks from a physical standpoint, Murray is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and enjoyed tremendous success in the same college system as Baker Mayfield, who was last year’s No. 1 overall pick.
While Murray can’t do anything about his height (he’s listed at 5-foot-10 and may actually be shorter), Peter King of NBC Sports wrote in his weekly column Monday that the former Oklahoma star has bulked up to 206 pounds ahead of the NFL Scouting Combine. That should help ease some of the concerns teams have about his physical stature.
Murray turned down more than $4 million in signing bonus money from the Oakland A’s to pursue a career in football, but he could make significantly more than that if he’s the first QB taken in the NFL Draft. The fact that he is reportedly in the running to make that happen probably explains some of his recent comments about choosing football over baseball.
