How much better is Kyler Murray's supporting cast now?
Analyzing what Murray had in Arizona and what he's inheriting
By Matthew Coller
In 2024, the Minnesota Vikings’ supporting cast and coaching was so good that the team convinced themselves that they could let Sam Darnold walk and JJ McCarthy could pick up where he left off.
Of course, not everything in the NFL goes to plan. In 2025, the offensive line suffered seemingly endless injuries, the receivers caught far fewer of the passes that they should have brought in and McCarthy struggled to handle the entire gameplan that the coaches laid out for him.
With Kyler Murray under center, the Vikings are hoping to return to their previous form as a club that could argue that they have one of the best setups for a quarterback in the NFL. From the 2024 squad, the only differences are Donovan Jackson and Will Fries at guard, Jordan Mason at running back and minus Jalen Nailor at wide receiver.
But how much better can the Vikings be around Murray than what he’s previously had as a supporting cast?
Let’s have a closer look…
Generally the way folks talk about a quarterback’s surroundings is by naming receivers and that’s about it. There has to be a better way, right?
You betcha. Ian Hartitz of Fantasy Life came up with a comparison system of looking at PFF’s grades for pass blocking, receiving and rushing to create an aggregate score for a QB’s circumstances.
Here we can look at every year of Murray’s career by the PFF grades for those three key categories since 2020 along with where Arizona ranked defensively in terms of points allowed.
We can compare those rankings to where the Vikings have graded offensively and finished defensively since Kevin O’Connell took over to see whether the Vikings can truly offer Murray a better home in 2026.
There are some pretty obvious takeaways. First, it should surprise nobody that the Vikings’ receiving grades outside of 2025 were elite. In case you forgot, it wasn’t that long ago that Justin Jefferson went over 1,800 yards in 2022 and have 1,400+ yards in 2024. The Cardinals had only two top-10 seasons in terms of receiving and both years Murray played some of his best football. The two bad seasons for Murray’s receivers were an absolute horror show.
Between 2020 and 2024, the QB rating for anyone throwing to Jefferson was 108.4, the 8th best in the NFL among all receivers with at least 300 targets.
When Murray has had even remotely comparable players, they have largely thrived. When he threw the ball to DeAndre Hopkins, he posted a 109.5 rating. When he passed the ball to Trey McBride, he completed 74.9% and had a 94.7 rating. When Murray threw to Christian Kirk, 98.4 rating.
He struggled when targeting Michael Wilson (74.1), Marvin Harrison Jr. (87.4) and some others than you may have forgotten played in the NFL like KeeSean Johnson (70.0 on 65 targets, somehow) and Andy Isabella (82.8 on 52 targets).
You could argue that Wilson and Harrison Jr. are talented and had some more success with Jacoby Brissett (93.0 to Wilson, 91.7 to Harrison Jr.) but overall the trend has been that Murray’s best receivers have been able to thrive and he’s been saddled with a lot sub-par pass catchers over the years and some of his best weapons got hurt.
For example, the Cardinals traded a first-round pick for Hollywood Brown, who only ended up getting 95 targets from Murray. Hopkins only played 10 games in 2021.
In terms of blocking, it is vital that the Vikings protect Murray.
Overall his pass protection has been fine but when it was very good in 2024 he posted strong clean pocket numbers. He was the 8th highest graded clean pocket QB by PFF and led the NFL in clean pocket Big-Time Throws.
Even during his rough 2022 season, Murray still was 21st of 40 QBs when clean and had the 16th best QB rating.
In 2021, he was the 4th best clean-pocket QB in the NFL by PFF and 10th by QB rating.
When pressured there’s no telling what Murray will do. By season, his PFF ranks from 2020 through 2024 are: 10th, 7th, 36th, 15th, 30th.
During O’Connell’s time in Minnesota, his offensive lines have not graded terribly, yet his quarterbacks have been sacked like crazy. The Vikings have lost the third most yards to sacks since 2022.
Some of that will be helped by Murray’s ability to scramble but it can’t be a coincidence that every QB who has played in this system has been a sack machine. From 2024 to 2025, Sam Darnold went from being taken down 48 times to just 27 with Seattle.
So it isn’t just the talent of the pass blockers that dictate pressures and sacks. If there’s any adjustments to be made with Murray coming in, it has to be in the realm of getting the ball out of his hands quickly.
Arizona was actually pretty successful at doing so. In 2024, he ranked 12th in the number of drop-backs where he threw the ball in less than 2.5 seconds. In 2021, he ranked 13th and he was the 5th highest graded passer when throwing quicker.
From a rushing game perspective, the 2023 and 2024 seasons were the only two years where he had a competent backfield. Unfortunately the Vikings’ runners haven’t been any better. Though Jordan Mason’s very good season probably went under the radar last year because of the offense’s struggles. He ranked 11th in yards per attempt and 13th in running grade. They need schematic improvements and possibly the addition of a RB in the draft to make any argument that they could crack the top 10.
The most obvious gap in Murray’s supporting cast is the defense.
Over the last two years, the Vikings are 16-1 when they score at least 24 points. Brian Flores’ defense has been a revelation, particularly since the roster was shaped in his vision.
If the defense can continue along the lines of its most recent performance, it will be the first time Murray has had a difference-making group on the other side of the ball. That might limit the number of times that he feels like he has to play hero and do miraculous things.
Bottom line: The Vikings’ setup might not project as being insanely better than the Cardinals were in Murray’s quality seasons but the presence of pass catchers across the board and a defense that has a chance to be elite are something he hasn’t had before and could alter how he’s asked to play.
But if the Vikings can’t provide a better rushing attack and keep him clean, the ceiling might not be crazy higher than what he’s done in the past.
RB and C should be high on the draft board, but odds are super low those guys actually make a huge immediate impact on the pass protection and running game. I think the run game and pass pro will still be good enough to have an effective offense, even if it isn’t going to set the league on fire. It’s going to come down to whether the defense can continue their top 5-10 status to help take pressure off of Murray.
Sacks are a feature not a bug of O’Connell’s offense