Kyler Murray’s MVP is pushing for significant improvements in some important aspects of his game in the second year.

The moment the football gods answered Hale Murray, Cardinal Quarterback Kyler Murray It has emerged as an MVP candidate.Of course, the connection that wins the last second game DeAndre Hopkins Stun Bill Week 10 wasn’t the only reason Murray was being considered as a candidate for the NFL’s most prestigious individual award, but a memorable play quickly triggered it.

Even if Hale Murray didn’t occur, Arizona’s second-year quarterback went a step further in the second year. This is more of a long-term value to the Cardinals than the face of a franchise-winning MVP. And he did so as a runner and a passerby.

With over 4,000 passyards and over 1,000 rush yards, Murray is moving at the pace of becoming the first 4,000 / 1,000 player in NFL history. Regarding the viewpoint, Lamar Jackson Last season was the second unanimous MVP at 3,127 yards in the air and 1,206 yards above the ground. As if Murray’s pace (4,222 passyards and 1,073 rushyards) wasn’t ridiculous enough, he’s also at a pace to become the league’s first player with at least 30 pass touchdowns and 15 rush scores.

But well-paced stats. You didn’t come here for them. And without the context from the rookie season, these stats are noteworthy, but they don’t describe how Murray evolved. This is important because the widespread maturity of his game is a good reason behind his MVP candidate.

This is a table detailing Murray’s significant improvements almost entirely.

(In previous articles, “true INT” was called “theoretical INT”. The former is cleaner in the table. These are the INTs thrown by QB, the leading INTs are omitted. , Defensive drop picks have been added.)

In addition to his general play under pressure, Murray has become significantly more dynamic this season. Better accuracy, clean pocket play, significantly better forced miss tackle rate, higher yards after contact per rush, and his true INT percentage decreased.

Murray also doesn’t hurt himself with the presence of overly annoying pockets that create pressure like a rookie. I labeled it in the outlook for the 2019 overall # 1 season The presence of pockets as the first weakness he needed to improve.. A year ago, Murray dominated the league’s best 25 sack in his own way. So he had 1.56 sack per game.

In nine contests up to 2020, only 10 bags were considered his fault, and the rate dropped to 1.11 per contest. It may look like a small drop, but almost half the percentage of that metric isn’t small.

Due to their stylistic similarity and second year breakout, Murray and his MVP candidates were compared to what he saw from Jackson last season.

And this is how they stack up:

Based on these categories, Murray wasn’t Jackson in 2019. Fortunately for Arizona’s quarterback, that may not be a problem given his flashy touchdowns. Voters like these easy-to-point stats, and Jackson scored seven rushes in the MVP campaign.

Clearly, what helped Jackson win the MVP was Baltimore’s record of 13-3 and the number one seed in the AFC. Is it necessarily important for individual awards? No, is that so? definitely.

When Russell Wilson Recently fell Aaron Rodgers Playing a featureless pedestrian game against the low competition of the 10th week, Josh Allen The road to MVP was paved for Murray, losing to the Cardinal of Murray in two intercepts and almost another intercept. Patrick Mahomes It’s definitely still there, maybe Tom bradyFor the first time, it is considered a dark horse.

Murray has left the game against three porous path defenses (Seahawks, Giants, Patriot), For a solid path defense (49ers) And two against stingy Rams..

Ultimately, I think Murray’s competition for MVP depends on two contests. Aaron Donald And Jalen Ramsey.. If the second-year passerby works well and Arizona can win at least one of these outings, he’ll put himself in a serious battle over MVP. But with Mahomes’ “lead” in the race and Kansas City likely to land as No. 1 or No. 2 seed in AFC, he’s good enough to win his second award in three seasons. Let’s do it.

(Unless otherwise stated, all advanced statistics are courtesy of TruMedia.)