If Russell Wilson was in Kyler Murray’s shoes this spring, would he have chosen baseball?
If Russell Wilson was where Kyler Murray was this past spring, might Seahawks’ history be different?
It seems like another life ago to Seattle fans, but the Colorado Rockies selected the Seahawks’ quarterback in the fourth round of Major League Baseball’s draft, in 2010.
In 2018 Murray was drafted in the first round, ninth overall, by baseball’s Oakland Athletics. The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Oklahoma had a $4.66 million signing bonus waiting for him from baseball, plus another $14 million the A’s reportedly added in January to try to get him to play for them instead of entering the NFL draft.
Murray sought out Wilson this past offseason for advice on the baseball-versus-football choice.
Murray chose football. He became the first-overall pick in April’s NFL draft. Sunday, Murray and his Arizona Cardinals (0-2-1) will face Wilson and his Seahawks (2-1) in Glendale, Arizona.
If Wilson had been a first-round pick in baseball coming out of being a Rose Bowl quarterback for Wisconsin nine years ago, if he had the chance Murray did—to get $19 million guaranteed from that sport before even playing a game instead of making a living getting chased by 300-pound guys who want to bury him every Sunday—would Wilson have chosen baseball?
“You know, that’s a tough question,” Wilson said Thursday.
“I love baseball, either way. I was (taken) in the fourth round, or whatever. For me—I love the game of baseball, still do, to this day—I would have tried to...I would have done the same thing, tried to keep my options open, see what happens.
“I love the game of football, too. So, it’s a tough decision, when you have an opportunity like that to play baseball, I think sometimes as a player when you have that many gifts, I know for me it almost seemed, at times, like it was a... it was almost like a curse, in a way. But it was really a blessing.
“You realize, ‘You know what, man, God has given you talent. And I want to use it to the best of my ability.’
“I think that, at the end of the day, I think I made the right decision.”
Wilson then laughed.
One Super Bowl ring. Six Pro Bowls. The most regular-season wins by an NFL quarterback in his first seven seasons in the Super Bowl era. Never missing a game in the eight years he’s been Seattle’s starter, since game one of his rookie year. A new, $140 million contract this spring, the richest total value in league history.
Yeah, he made the right choice.
Murray followed Wilson’s advice.
“He just wanted to connect, ask about the draft, ask about the process and why I chose football, and everything else, and that process,” Wilson said. “I think for me—and I told him, I’ll never forget... I told him, ‘You’ve got to write out your pros and cons, really, what your vision is and what you want to do in life. Have the ability to say, ‘You know what? No matter what I choose, it’s going to work out for the good.’
“I think he made a great decision, just in terms of his ability to play the game of football. It’s spectacular.
“And I get to play against him for many years.”
Murray has yet to win his first NFL game in a Cardinals offense and franchise that is completely starting over from the Bruce Arians era and Steve Wilks’ cameo season of 2018. First-time NFL head coach Kliff Kingsbury has installed Murray as the (quick-) trigger man of the Mike Leach-style Air Raid offense Kingsbury, who turned 40 last month, ran as a college quarterback at Texas Tech.
Murray has improved each game this month. He’s gone from a 54-percent passer in his first NFL game to 70 percent in game three, last weekend’s 38-20 home loss to Carolina. Murray has four touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s averaging 6 yards per rush when he takes off in Kingsbury’s wide-open offense.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says Murray is “a fantastic athlete, and he can throw the ball all over the place, and you can see why he’s that pick.”
But can the Cardinals keep Murray upright?
He’s been sacked a painful 16 times in three games. Some of those sacks have come when Murray has been Wilson-like in holding onto the ball and extending plays. A lot of them have been because Arizona’s offensive line is so poor.
Teams don’t get first-overall picks and the chance to draft talents because of Murray because they’ve been good.
“I think he’s competed very well,” Kingsbury said this week on a conference call with Seattle media. “Obviously, there are things we have to clean up. Each game he plays is just going to make him better and we’re going to go through some ups and downs.
“We understand that process when you’re starting a rookie quarterback. He’s given us a chance late in the games the first three weeks, and for a young guy, that’s saying a lot.”
Wilson is a believer in his protege.
“I haven’t been able to watch the games much, because, obviously, we are usually playing at the same times, a lot of times,” Wilson said. “But just getting to know him throughout the offseason and talking to him before the draft and stuff like that, I have a lot of respect for him. He loves the game. Obviously, the similarities in baseball, our heights, and everything else.
“I think that he’s a fantastic football player, obviously. You can see. I watched him a lot in college, though, when he was on TV playing, running around and throwing the ball deep, doing some special things. He’s a competitive player.
“He’s a guy who loves the game. He’ll make a lot of great throws for them.”
Like another former baseball player does for the Seahawks, a guy some credit for paving Murray’s path to the NFL as Drew Brees did for Wilson.
“Dynamic athletes, great leaders and very confident in their abilities. Playmakers. You can see those things,” Kingsbury said. “But I think their styles are a little bit different.
“Russell has been through it. I mean, he’s won a Super Bowl, been in multiple Super Bowls, played a bunch of football. When you watch his style of play and how he’s kind of perfected knowing when to make a spectacular play and knowing when the play is over and throwing it away.
“Those are all things we’re working through. He’s a great guy to watch and learn from. ...You have a guy like him, you have a guy like Brees, who are lighting the world on fire.
“I think it definitely opens up some doors that hey, you don’t have to be 6-5, 240 to play at a high level in this league.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2019 at 3:28 PM.
