The Arizona Cardinals were night and day different when Kyler Murray made his return from ACL rehab.
The eye test certainly confirmed that, but so too did the numbers. Arizona averaged roughly a touchdown more under Murray's guidance in points per game while three of four wins were Murray's to take on the season.
Various stats highlight the positive impact Murray made on the team, and that extends to the offensive line.
FTN - the site responsible for the coveted DVOA stat - wrote a tremendous piece on caused pressure rates last season, with the Cardinals at the forefront of conversation.
Arizona finished with a total uncaused pressure rate - which accounts for offensive lineman not being at fault for pressure on the quarterback - of 13.6%, the highest in the league. In total, blown blocks allowed a second-to-highest 52% of pressure in Arizona.
"It is commonly accepted that the Cardinals’ line is unimpressive, at best. They were just 19th in adjusted sack rate and ESPN’s pass block win rate; 24th in Dan Fornek’s offensive line rankings from earlier this month and a horrific 31st in Mike Clay’s positional rankings. But while it would be a stretch to call them one of the league’s best units, we can at least say that their quarterbacks did not make their lives easy last season," wrote Bryan Knowles.
"The Cardinals jump from 17th in pressure all the way to fourth in caused pressure, with a blown block being responsible just 52% of the time. Instead, Arizona had the highest-rate of uncaused pressure in the league at 13.6% — that’s higher than Miami or Green Bay’s rate of caused pressure. Despite the line’s best efforts, their quarterbacks kept coming under fire all year long."
Knowles then highlighted the differences between pressure rates with Josh Dobbs and Murray at the helm.
"And, indeed, with Dobbs under center, the Cardinals’ uncaused pressure shot up to 17.6%. With Murray, it was a better-than-average 9.5%. That’s a significant dropoff, as Dobbs was a pressure magnet both in Arizona and Minnesota; only four other quarterbacks had a higher unearned pressure rate than Dobbs. That doesn’t explain all of Arizona’s drop in overall pressure rate (34.1% to 21.7%), but it’s a huge factor."Bryan Knowles
After running through Dobbs' numbers (60% of dropbacks took more than 2.5 seconds and Dobbs not settling for checkdowns or throwaways), Knowles concluded with:
"Murray doesn’t exactly make the throwaway part of his game, either, but he’s more content to tuck and run than Dobbs is, and he seemed to have a better command of the offense, going through his progressions faster and having a better sense of when and where to check to the hot read.
"That leads to fewer plays where Murray is freelancing, leading to less time for the offense to hold up, leading to fewer uncaused pressures. With Murray back for a full year in Arizona, perhaps the Cardinals can expect their pressure rate to drop accordingly, even if they get the exact same level of performance from their reshuffled offensive line."
Numerous Cardinals offensive linemen have spoke on Murray's return and the overall lift it will give Arizona.
Murray's health for a full season should help even the offensive line's analytics, too.
