- Kyler Murray just signed a new $230 million extension with the Arizona Cardinals.
- While the deal makes Murray one of the highest-paid players in the league, it also comes with a few embarrassing caveats, including a "study clause."
The Arizona Cardinals have found their long-term answer at quarterback, signing Kyler Murray to a five-year, $230 million extension, including $160 million in guaranteed money.
That said, the new deal also raised plenty of questions.
Chief among them was a clause referred to as an "independent study addendum" that was included in the deal.
NFL Network's Ian Rapaport tweeted out the details of the clause, which mandated that Murray spend at least four hours a week studying film.
The clause went as far as to say that Murray's film sessions must have his undivided attention, specifying that the Cardinals quarterback cannot be watching television or playing video games during his study time.
—Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 25, 2022
Hilariously, Rapaport appeared to quickly get appeal asking for some better messaging, leading to a quote-retweet that looked a lot like damage control.
—Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 25, 2022
But even with that bit of softening from Rapaport, Murray's deal still quickly came under criticism.
The Arizona Cardinals apparently trusted Murray enough to commit a healthy fraction of a billion — with a "B" — to him over the next five years, but didn't trust him enough to devote four hours of film study in a week without writing it into the contract? What gives?
ESPN's NFL insider Adam Schefter lambasted the deal on "NFL Live."
"It's unprecedented language," Schefter said. "I think when you talk to people around the league, they believe that this is an indictment of both sides.
"The Arizona Cardinals, for agreeing to pay Kyler Murray over $230 million while insisting that he has a clause in there to study. For Kyler Murray, it's a reflection of how the Cardinals are concerned about his work habits. It doesn't make either side look good in this particular case, and it certainly sounds like in the end, Arizona felt like if it was going to pay Kyler Murray all this money, it wanted assurances that he was going to work hard for that money."
Former NFL safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark offered a similar critique, comparing Murray's contract with the Cardinals to a deal he makes with his child.
"I've heard this conversation before. I've actually had this conversation before," Clark said. "Here it is, to my fifth-grader — 'Hey, listen. I need you to sit down and study for an hour. If you don't do that, you can't play video games or watch TV.' We've heard it before, but if was with a fifth-grader! Not a professional quarterback that was about to earn $160 million guaranteed and $230 million over the next five years. This looks bad on everybody."
For what it's worth, the chances of the clause actually coming into play at some point over Murray's next few years in Arizona feels highly unlikely. It's difficult to imagine the Cardinals attempting to use the clause to get out of the deal, and it's even more difficult to imagine the NFLPA letting it happen without the legal system getting involved.
Should Murray and the Cardinals find success in their coming years together, it's possible that Murray's study clause is remembered as a comical footnote en route to Super Bowl glory. But given its inclusion in the contract in the first place, it feels as if even the Cardinals aren't all that confident in that future coming to fruition.