Cardinals' Kyler Murray isn't a fan of preseason games, but he'll play in one on Friday

Kyler Murray hated how last season ended for the Cardinals. He absolutely loved how it began, however. That’s because the NFL cancelled the entire preseason and Murray, for one, isn’t what you’d call a fan of exhibition football.

“Oh, I loved last year,” the quarterback said after training camp practice on Tuesday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. “You practice every day hard against your team and then you come out of the gates running. That’s how it is in college. Obviously, this is the NFL, but I liked the way it was set up (in 2020).

“I don’t like taking days off. In the preseason games, you’re playing a little bit, you’re not playing at all. It’s just a weird flow of things. I kind of like the fact that we practiced hard every day up until the season started.”

There’s another reason why Murray doesn’t particularly enjoy preseason games, even though the league reduced the schedule this season from four games to three for all but two teams in 2021.

“It’s not real,” Murray said. “I see it as like, go out and play well, but it’s not real. You play bad, you’ve got a bad taste in your mouth. It’s reps, it’s live reps, so you take something away from it. But at the end of the day, this doesn’t count.

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“I’m not very fond of it. I like going hard in practice and then on Sunday, let the chips fall where they may. The preseason, like I said, it doesn’t count.”

Obviously then, Murray didn’t mind being held out of last week’s preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys, a 19-16 victory by the Cardinals.

“I definitely wasn’t mad about it,” he said laughing.

Recognizing it was a special moment for some of the players he said he just tried to cheer them on, keep them focused, and support the rest of his teammates.

This Friday night, it figures to be different. When the Cardinals host the Kansas City Chiefs in their second preseason game, Murray is expected to be in the starting lineup and get some live action for the first time since injuring his ankle and missing most of Arizona’s regular-season finale against the Rams.

“I’m going to play a little bit, I’m sure,” he said. “I don’t know how much. You want to go in there and play and do well, though.”

Coach Kliff Kingsbury wasn’t ready to reveal just how Murray and the rest of the starters will play. Given the Cardinals’ slew of injuries on both sides of the ball, expect to see a ton out of the second- and third-stringers once again, regardless. Even if the team were fully healthy, Kingsbury isn’t sure how much he’d let his starters play.

Some coaches, such as the Rams’ Sean McVay, doesn’t plan to let quarterback Matthew Stafford play at all during the preseason.

“There’s always a fine line,” Kingsbury said. “We know the risk you take by putting those guys out there. Some teams don’t do it, some teams do. I’m not sure who’s right or wrong, but we try to make the best decisions for this organization and go from there.

“People are not playing their guys as much in the preseason and we’re trying to be smart about it as well. I blame McVay. No, he’s got a great philosophy and it’s worked extremely well there. I know in talking to guys from their team, they do appreciate it and so it’s definitely started a trend.”

Murray knows the preseason is important for players trying to nail down a roster spot. He just doesn’t see any real value in it for himself or most established players.

“You want to make it to Week 1 with everybody full speed, 100 percent, healthy and ready to go,” he said. “It’s the game of football, so anything can happen any given day at practice, at home, anything.”

If practice makes perfect and preseason games don’t matter, Murray hasn’t always been getting a whole lot of usable reps with much of the first-team offense. During the open portion of practice on Friday, for instance, left tackle D.J. Humphries was the only member of the starting offensive line who was on the field.

He’s gone several days without getting a chance to throw to No.1 wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and other top wideouts. He went a week without running back James Conner. Brian Winters and Justin Murray, who were the top two contenders for the starting right guard spot, have been out for weeks with undisclosed injuries.

Those health issues and others must be having some type of consequences on Murray’s preparedness for the start of the 2021 season. Murray doesn’t think so, however.

“I just think it’s the wear and tear of camp. I don’t have any concern about it,” he said. “I’m sure there’s been a couple days I could have taken off from feeling fatigued. But I’m the quarterback. I don’t mind when those guys get their days off. All I care about them is being healthy Sept 12. That’s all I care about.”