Kyler Murray looked uncomfortable at times while working through the Vikings offense, but the quarterback battle is still moving forward. The full system has not been simplified for him, and the competition with J.J. McCarthy will continue into training camp.
Kevin O'Connell's Full System
Murray worked through lengthy verbiage and downfield route distributions as he learned Kevin O'Connell's scheme in Minnesota. Alec Lewis wrote that everything here revolves around the quarterback, and that the most notable aspect of workouts was Murray's progression in O'Connell's system.
He had some growing pains. The Vikings installed the full breadth of concepts and play calls to challenge him, and the team believed that approach would be best in the long run. That left Murray in a real test of processing speed, not a watered-down walkthrough.
J.J. McCarthy And Murray
The competition with J.J. McCarthy is not ending with workouts. Murray is likely to be given every chance to win the starting job, and barring major setbacks in health or scheme understanding, the platform should exist for him to do it.
That setup gives the Vikings a clear evaluation period. They are not treating Murray as a stopgap to hide behind McCarthy, and they did not make a high-profile offseason signing to sit him down. The job is still open enough for the way he handles the offense to matter every day.
Murray's Five-Game Season
The last full statistical checkpoint on Murray was a short season: he appeared in five games because of injuries. In that span, the two-time Pro Bowler threw for 962 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions, then added 173 yards and one score on the ground.
Those numbers are part of why the Vikings are willing to keep pushing the offense at full difficulty. If Murray can get comfortable with the volume of calls and the spacing rules built into the scheme, he can still win the job on merit. Whether he gets there by training camp is the story now.
