Good morning! Football’s back.
Hope is in the air everywhere across America.
That’s the beauty of training camp. All 32 teams are in a splendid mood. And in Minnesota, spirits should absolutely be lifted with the news — once ‘n for all — that Kyler Murray will be the starting quarterback. What a compelling marriage. This QB, that head coach, these weapons? All on the heels of seeing Sam Darnold win a ring?
Pure theater. This is exactly why we’re all addicted to pro football.
So through this summer — to see where this all goes — Go Long chatted with as many people as we could around both the quarterback, the Vikings and those Arizona Cardinals.
To subscribers, thank you for your patronage and reading.
To those on the free list, it’s a fine time to join our community of readers around the world this 2-part series.
Part I
The Kyler Murray Project, Part I: Liberated
He's the high-voltage QB capable of electrifying these Vikings. First, Go Long examines the forces that brought Murray to town: a Bidwillian dystopia, Marvin Harrison Jr. and "Nine." Tread carefully.
Part II
The Kyler Murray Project, Part II: The Great Unknown
“It’s now or never. Hopefully he senses the moment.” How will Kyler Murray perform as the new QB1 in Minnesota? Go Long speaks to those who know both the QB and the QB's game best.
On Thursday, I popped onto the Jim Rome Show to discuss and I’m guessing his burning questions are the ones on your mind, too.
Are there real schematic concerns? Sure. Are there reasons to doubt things will *click* for Murray on (and off) the field this late into his career? Yeah. Kurt Warner and Warren Moon, two Hall of Famers, both bring up valid points.
The closer we look, however, the more I came away thinking the Minnesota Vikings could light up the scoreboard this season — and compete in the NFC.
The Situation. It was far more wretched in Arizona than anyone realizes. There’s the rancid institution itself — owner Michael Bidwill has been despised by many inside his building. (“You’re not going to find one human being alive that’s going to say anything nice about the guy,” one former exec tells us.) But there’s also the tangible roster decisions made in the front office that led Arizona to this point. I think what might’ve blown my brain most in our reporting are the Marvin Harrison Jr. stories. With Malik Nabers on the board, the Cardinals made the alleged “safe” pick in the Ohio State star. In reality, it’s been anything but. Throughout the NFL, scouts knew Harrison Jr. suffered from an extreme lack of confidence… because of Dad. The Hall of Fame wideout was unrelenting during college. Nothing was good enough. (“His father would text him and call him like, ‘Hey man, you need to do this, you need to do that,’ while he was at Ohio State. So he feels the pressure. Any time he comes off the field — practice, games — his Dad is always there.”) On the field, as a Cardinal, Harrison Jr. has played slow and small while Nabers flashes the potential to be a superstar. Swapping Harrison Jr. for Justin Jefferson will be an entirely new world.
X’s and O’s. My gut feeling into this all was skepticism because Kevin O’Connell hails from that McVay/Shanahan school of thought. The sort of offensive coach who’d seem to prefer a terminator at the position that’s stationary and ruthlessly efficient. A few people open our eyes to an entirely new perspective on this all. We get some excellent insight from ex-Cardinals assistant coach Jordan Hogan and running back Chase Edmonds. Hogan spent 2020 and 2021 inside the room with Murray before then joining Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco. So he knows both the player and the scheme. Here’s Hogan: “When you start talking top 10 or top five quarterbacks, any time they have the ball in their hands, an explosive play is going to happen. Kyler definitely has that impact. You’re afraid of what he can do. He doesn’t have the same effect as Lamar with his legs — Lamar can get 60 on you in a heartbeat. But Kyler can make all the throws on the football field. If he couldn’t, he wouldn’t be in the league because of his height. You fear getting him down. He’s trying to scramble so he can throw for 40 yards.” In detail, both Hogan and Edmonds explain how a 5-foot-10 improviser like Murray can excel in a West Coast offense.
What’s inside. This is the mystery. Murray’s extremely close to the vest and keeps a microscopic circle of friends. Coaches in Arizona don’t view him as aloof or apathetic — not in the least. The secret, they insist, is coaching him hard. Letting the F-bombs fly. Getting in his face. Because when you bark, he’ll bark. When you bite, he’ll bite. And this is the best way to reach the best solutions. Don’t forget: Murray may be the greatest football player from the greatest football state in America. He never lost in three years. He won the Heisman. He went No. 1 overall. He needs coaches and players to operate on his Mamba frequency. And everything we hear from friends and coaches is that Murray is unbelievably motivated to reclaim his reputation in 2026. (“Kyler needs people that are going to tell him, ‘Hey, you’re fucking tripping.’ He needs people to coach him like a skill guy. Not like a… ‘Hey, this is a quarterback,’” this coach says in a delicate accent. “No. You’ve got to say: ‘Hey motherfucker, throw him the ball.’”) This is a very difficult needle for O’Connell to thread, to be sure. We’ll see if he can.
JJ Malaise. It’s a miracle the Vikings won nine games last season considering just how bad McCarthy was at quarterback. Sources say he had a more realistic approach to this offseason, but his behavior on and off the field was incredibly strange. Full details in Part I. O’Connell is on record saying that teams fail young quarterbacks more than young quarterbacks fail teams. But this has all the signs of being Trey Lance all over again. As much as Minnesota would love to keep developing a young QB, a mid-round pick may be enticing. To his credit, McCarthy took the news in-stride publicly.
The pressure. Murray has matured quite a bit since Mom did his laundry early in his NFL career. He’s seen it all in Arizona. He lived through the Homework Clause embarrassment. Through writing this all, I kept thinking back to an awesome point made by Harrison Smith during Super Bowl Week for our piece on Darnold. He said: “Everyone acts like you’re either the worst or you’re the GOAT All the dumbass shit that people just come up with. I think Sam is a good example of a guy that just goes to work and he doesn’t make too big of a deal of anything.” Darnold was always better than anyone thought surviving Jets Hell. But from New York… to Carolina… to QB Rehab in San Francisco… to Minnesota — as the rest of the world ripped him as a bust — all Darnold did was find ways to improve every day. It’s not sexy. It’s not on glamorized on NFL Network all offseason. But like Smith said then, that’s what makes the best of the best of the BEST — MJ, Tiger, Brady. This offseason marked Murray’s first true bout with adversity. (“He knows what it feels like to be on his ass for once,” Edmonds told us.) Here’s thinking Murray’s hyper-competitiveness and abrasiveness is ideal for such a gut-check moment. Not only is his reputation on the line. Hell, he can early himself a ton of money with a career year. O’Connell will be looking to re-assert himself as one of the greatest teachers of the position. Justin Jefferson, post-McCarthy, will be eager to prove he’s the NFL’s best wide receiver. All parties involved should feel an overpowering sense of urgency into 2026.
For more, be sure to read both Part I and Part II of The Kyler Murray Project.
Thank you all for reading — I never take your support lightly.
As a monolith of social-media scrollers base entire articles off the comment section and screenshots, you take a solid 20-30 minutes out of your day to dig in and learn something with an open mind at Go Long. Very grateful.
You’ll never see one ad or one sponsor here. We’re not bought and paid for by gambling companies.
Go Long will forever maintain its independence because of you.
Expect more longform stories right up to Week 1. Keep a lookout for our 2026 plans, too.
Onward!
2026 Season Preview Features to date: