If you followed us last year, you know we were “all-in” on Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid offense and especially Kyler Murray. The rest of the pieces didn’t exactly pan out (cough, David Johnson, cough), but Kyler and the addition of Kenyan Drake made us look pretty smart as the year went on. No, Murray didn’t put up Patrick Mahomes-esque numbers, but the 2019 Rookie of the Year put up 20 touchdowns through the air, while he adding 544 yards and four scores on the ground. Not too bad.
While Kliff Kingsbury gushed about Murray’s rookie year ball security, he was mostly focused on Kyler’s potential in 2020.
“I expect him to make a big jump this season,” Kliff said. “His skillset is through the roof. We just have to work hard to get better.”
So, how will Murray take that year-two leap?
“Progression, comfort level in the pocket and the system,” he explained. “Week in and week out, really understanding what we are trying to accomplish.”
“I think it can be special,” Kingsbury said when asked about year two in his Air Raid system. “You see how teams are building around their quarterbacks, like they did with Mahomes and Lamar, like we are trying to do with Kyler. Not trying to make the quarterback fit the system but make the system fit the quarterback. That can be an ideal situation, when guys have that type of synergy.”
After keeping his system under wraps during the preseason, the offense started off slower than expected. However, it seems as though Kingsbury has learned from his rookie mistake and the offense should be geared up to break scoreboards right away in 2020.
“I think it was a work in progress, no doubt,” Kingsbury explained. “I don’t think we got where we wanted to be completely offensively, but I think having an entire offseason with our players understanding what we want to be, the tempo, and year two of the quarterback, we’ll be able to expand the playbook quite a bit.”
Kingsbury noted that quarterbacks in year two of his offense tend to feel more comfortable and the offense becomes more natural — which should terrify opposing defenses. If you look at Mahomes’ collegiate stats under Kingsbury from freshman to sophomore year, his completion percentage increased by seven points, while his total touchdowns jumped from 2.2 per game to 3.5 per game.
“In our offense, traditionally in year one to year two, our quarterbacks have played at a much higher level, and I am expecting him to do the same,” Kingsbury said of his stud quarterback.
