Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is hitting the practice field on Wednesday amid his recovery from a knee injury that ended his 2022 campaign.

Murray confirmed he would be practicing with the Cardinals on Wednesday via X, formerly known as Twitter, opening his 21-day practice window:

Star safety Budda Baker will also return to practice today, head coach Jonathan Gannon announced.

Gannon hinted on Monday during an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7-FM that Murray could possibly return to practice this week.

"We've got to kind of see here the next couple days, see how tonight goes and tomorrow goes, and again, though, we're not rushing that," Gannon said, per Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. "We're making sure that he feels good about going out there, but he's trending in the right direction."

Murray now has a 21-day practice window to be activated to the 53-man roster. If he's not activated within that 21-day window then he won't be eligible to return to the field this season.

The Cardinals don't appear to have any concern that Murray won't be able to return within the 21-day timeframe as Gannon told reporters Wednesday that the quarterback has no limitations and will be "full-go" in practice.

Murray tore his ACL in a December 2022 matchup against the New England Patriots and he began the 2023 campaign on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list.

Gannon said during his appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7-FM earlier this week that he would need to see Murray reach some benchmarks before he returns to game action.

"Just to make sure that before the mental gets put on him of playing football, to make sure the physical is right," Gannon said.

"Just all the different things that he does as a player and what he wants to be able to do playing the position, to make sure we can simulate that as much as we can without being out there playing football but that he feels comfortable with everything that he's going to need to be able to do to function."

The Cardinals have turned to Joshua Dobbs in Murray's absence, and the team is 1-5 on the season. Dobbs has completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 1,215 yards and six touchdowns against three interceptions, in addition to rushing for 189 yards and one score.

Getting Murray back will be a huge boost to the Arizona offense, though it might be too late for the team to contend for a playoff spot by that point.

Still, Murray is a two-time Pro Bowler and the 2019 Offensive Rookie of the Year. Getting him back into the fold this season and having him ready to go by 2024 can only help the Cardinals moving forward.

The Cards will be back in action on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, and Dobbs will be back under center.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, who is rehabbing from a torn ACL, may appear on the practice field shortly.

Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon expressed optimism on Murray's potential imminent return during his weekly appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM's Burns & Gambo show.

Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic relayed the remarks.

"Yeah, he's doing a good job. I like the week that he had," Gannon said Monday. "We've got to kind of see here the next couple days, see how tonight goes and tomorrow goes, and again, though, we're not rushing that. We're making sure that he feels good about going out there, but he's trending in the right direction."

Murray could get back as soon as Wednesday, which marks the Cardinals' first practice prior to a game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Murray began the year on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list as he continued to recover from the torn ACL, which he suffered on a scramble during a Dec. 12, 2022 matchup against the New England Patriots.

A return to practice would trigger a 21-day window for the Cardinals to put Murray on the 53-man roster. If Murray is unable to go after that stretch, then he would remain on the PUP list for the rest of the year.

Murray, a two-time Pro Bowler, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. The 26-year-old has completed 66.8 percent of his passes for 84 touchdowns (41 interceptions) and 242.9 yards per game over his career. He's a two-time Pro Bowler who also earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2019.

With Murray out, the 1-5 Cardinals have turned to Josh Dobbs, who has completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 1,215 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. His 84.0 quarterback rating ranks 21st among 33 qualifiers.

It appears that Dobbs could be making way for Murray soon enough, but there's hurdles left for the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner to clear before he plays.

Gannon told Arizona Sports that he needs to see the following before Murray gets back on the practice field:

"Just to make sure that before the mental gets put on him of playing football, to make sure the physical is right," Gannon said.

"Just all the different things that he does as a player and what he wants to be able to do playing the position, to make sure we can simulate that as much as we can without being out there playing football but that he feels comfortable with everything that he's going to need to be able to do to function."

Gannon also appreciates the work he's put in to get back onto the field and answered positively when asked if he was mentally ready to return to the field.

"Yeah, I do," Gannon said. "But you've got to play football, too. We understand there's going to be a little of a learning curve, a new system for him. He hasn't taken a snap in this offense. I like the plan with kind of how we have it structured and the work that he's been putting in during practice, in meetings, the extra time spent in the morning and at night.

"I mean, this guy is a competitor. He's doing a lot to get himself as mentally and physically ready as he can before he goes out there and practices. And I really appreciate him for that because he puts the work in, I know that."

Hypothetically, if Murray's practice window started Wednesday, then he'd have until Wednesday, Nov. 8 to be placed onto the active roster. That perhaps means a return for the Cardinals' Week 10 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Nov. 12.

For now, though, Murray is clearly taking positive steps toward returning to the field.

Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill allegedly presided over a toxic culture of fear throughout the course of his tenure running the organization, according to former and current employees who spoke with Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic.

Bidwell was told by former COO Ron Minegar in 2019 that "a majority" of Cardinals employees were "working in fear" because of the workplace conditions created by his behavior.

Bidwill is described as a micromanager who yelled at employees over seemingly minor transgressions, creating a culture where workers felt like they were "walking on eggshells."

"You would think being an entertainment sports team that it would be a fun place to work. No, not at all," one employee said.

Bidwill reportedly involved himself in minor day-to-day tasks, expressing frustration over the area code of an employee's cell phone number and yelling at an employee who turned off the office's fluorescent lighting in favor of softer light.

"People just didn't say anything. They complain under their breath, and they go into their car at lunch and they cry," an employee said.

The team did not have a dedicated human resources director from 2008 until 2021, which only furthered the culture of silence. When the Cardinals sent out an employee survey in 2019, Bidwill was torn "to shreds" but the team allegedly went radio silent in its aftermath. One employee said the survey "disappeared into thin air," and former team executive Terry McDonough accused Bidwill of burying its results in a lawsuit.

The team released a statement to The Athletic saying the results of the survey were taken into account despite their results not being made available to employees.

"The 2019 survey was not ignored. In fact, significant action was taken based on its feedback, the most prominent of which was the creation of the Chief People Officer role," the team said. "Some changes were immediate, like the employee wellness initiatives announced in February of 2020, just weeks before COVID shut down the country. Others took longer as a result of the pandemic."

Bidwill also responded to allegations made by employees, saying he has "room to grow" and he's working on being a better leader.

"As I have said personally to every member of the Cardinals organization, I certainly have room to grow and with the benefit of hindsight, would have done some things differently over the years," Bidwill said. "I also know that my direct approach doesn't always land well, and I'm working on that. I have always been driven by the desire to learn and improve and more importantly, to use those lessons in building the best organization possible. Over the last several years, we have taken significant steps to improve our culture and build a stronger community. We are a better and more inclusive organization today than we were yesterday and I'm extremely excited about what we can be tomorrow."

The report also accuses the team of putting in an unwritten culture regarding the behavior of female employees, particularly regarding how they dress and frowning on them speaking to players and coaches—even when the players/coaches initiate the conversation.

"It felt like I was walking on eggshells," one former employee said. "Am I okay to be here? Oh my God, what if someone sees me here? You're just doing your job and trying to walk around the building in which you work and feeling like, 'Oh, I can't be on this side.'"

The team denied there was ever an official policy in place restricting the behavior of female employees. Shaun Mayo, the Cardinals' Chief People Officer, said the unwritten rules were "urban myths and old news."

Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner has been placed on injured reserve due to a knee injury he suffered in Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals,

He will miss a minimum of four games. The earliest he would be eligible to return is in Week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons.

ESPN's Adam Schefter previously reported Conner was expected to miss multiple weeks.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon said Monday on Arizona Sports' Burns & Gambo he was "not quite sure yet" about the extent of the damage to Conner's knee, but it was looking like he could miss "a little bit of time."

"We're still working through that," Gannon added. "James will be back at some point but honestly just wanted to add another back for some depth there to make sure we're OK there for practice and for the games."

Conner was injured in the second quarter at the end of a 35-yard run. He was seen on the sidelines at one point in the game with his helmet on, but the Cardinals elected to hold him out.

The 28-year-old had six carries for 46 yards and was on the field for 12 snaps. He's been terrific as the starting running back with 364 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 68 attempts in five games.

Undrafted rookie Emari Demercado came into the game after Conner left. He ran well with 45 yards and a score on 10 carries. Wide receiver Rondale Moore also got three carries for 50 yards in the game.

Second-year running back Keaontay Ingram has missed the past two weeks due to a neck injury. He was a limited participant in practice on Thursday and Friday, so he could be nearing a return.

The Cardinals claimed Tony Jones Jr. off waivers on Monday after he was released by the New Orleans Saints.

Conner is in his third season with the Cardinals after spending the first four years of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He racked up 2,209 yards from scrimmage and 26 total touchdowns over the previous two seasons.

Kyler Murray is working toward getting back on the field this season, but the Arizona Cardinals still have a long-term decision to make with the 26-year-old quarterback.

Per ESPN's Dan Graziano, there's a belief that the Cardinals are undecided at this point about what they want to do with Murray:

"Based on my conversations with various sources about this situation, I do not believe the Cardinals have decided what they will do with Murray after this season. And that's obviously understandable. He's still not healthy enough to play, they don't know when he will be, and it's too early in the season to know what their other options are for 2024 and beyond."

Graziano also noted the vast majority of front-office people from around the league he spoke with said "it would be difficult to imagine a team giving the Cardinals something of value for Murray if they didn't know for a fact he was healthy, and that the only way to know for sure about his health would be to see him play at least a few games this season."

The speculation from people outside the Cardinals organization—executives and agents—is they are "likely" to move on from Murray after the season.

Murray has been on the physically unable to perform list all season. He is currently rehabbing a torn ACL he suffered in a Week 14 loss to the New England Patriots last year.

This week was the first time Murray was eligible to come off the PUP list, but ESPN's Adam Schefter reported he's still "weeks away" from being ready to play.

When the Cardinals remove Murray from the PUP list, he will have a 21-day practice window to get ready. At the end of that period, the team has to decide if it will put him on the 53-man roster.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters on Tuesday he doesn't think there's any disappointment Murray wasn't activated: "We knew his timeline, where he is at, and that's kind of a day-by-day thing with all the guys coming off an injury. He actually has been very upbeat the whole time but this last couple of weeks I have seen a little bit of a different bounce in his step."

In a TikTok posted on Sept. 20, Murray recorded a video of himself doing squats with a dumbbell and wrote a caption:

"I tore my ACL 8 months ago. This is the only major injury I've had. I've never missed the game like this. I'm itching to get back. You learn a lot about yourself in these types of moments. To those of you who ride with me, support me, speak up for me, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know. I won't let us down. Soon."

Murray has been adamant that he's going to return at some point this season. General manager Monti Ossenfort recentl said on Arizona Sports' Wolf & Luke (h/t Kevin Zimmerman of ArizonaSports.com) they "won't hesitate" to activate him when he's ready.

Despite their 1-3 record, the Cardinals have been a pleasant surprise through the first four weeks of the season. They have been competitive in three of their first four games, highlighted by a 28-16 upset of the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3.

Even last week's loss to the San Francisco 49ers was a five-point game before the 49ers scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make it a 35-16 final score.

If the Cardinals want to move on from Murray after this season, their best approach would likely be getting him on the field for a few games if he's physically capable of doing so. His value took a hit last season even before the knee injury.

Murray is under contract through the 2028 season and has a $51.9 million cap hit in 2024. The two-time Pro Bowler averaged 3,826 passing yards, 595 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns per season from 2019 to '21.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is not expected to come off the the physically unable to perform list when eligible following Week 4 and is "still considered weeks away from playing," according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Murray has been sidelined since tearing his ACL during a Week 14 matchup against the New England Patriots during the 2022 season. He underwent surgery to repair the ailment in January.

The two-time Pro Bowler spoke about his recovery for the first time during an appearance on the Flight Plan podcast in July (h/t NFL.com's Kevin Patra):

"It's got to be a positive. There really is no option for it to be a negative," Murray said. I feel you get your little grace period right after it happens, dwell on it, soak in it, let the feelings take over. After that, (expletive), we gotta go. Life doesn't stop. The job doesn't stop. And I'm not going to stop."

Murray was having a decent 2022 season before being ruled out with a torn ACL, completing 66.4 percent of his passes for 2,368 yards and 14 touchdowns against seven interceptions in 11 games, in addition to rushing for 418 yards and three scores.

The 26-year-old's injury was a crushing blow for the Cardinals, which finished the season with a 4-13 record and missed the postseason for the sixth time in seven seasons.

His absence to begin the 2023 season has also been difficult for Arizona as it has relied on Joshua Dobbs, who has led the team to a 1-2 record while completing 72 percent of his passes for just 549 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to rushing for 93 yards and one score.

The Cardinals sit fourth in the NFC West and are slated for a difficult matchup against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. is continuing to explore his passion for photography.

The 53-year-old was seen working Sunday's game between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals as a photographer at State Farm Stadium in Glendale:

This isn't Griffey's first high-profile photography assignment. Last month, he was seen shooting pics of Lionel Messi during Inter Miami's game against Nashville SC.

Per Karl Rasmussen of Sports Illustrated, Griffey has been practicing photography since his retirement from baseball in 2010. He was seen snapping pictures of the 2015 Fiesta Bowl, and his Instagram is filled with photos of other events he's covered such as the 2023 Home Run Derby, a Monday Night Football game, a professional IndyCar race and more.

It can be expected that Griffey will get some pics of Dak Prescott and the Cowboys while they attempt to start the season 3-0.

Before he was a five-time Pro Bowl NFL player, Tennessee Titans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins spent three years playing for the Clemson Tigers.

Now Hopkins is heading back to Clemson, and, this time, he plans to leave with a degree.

Hopkins told reporters Friday he is attending online and virtual classes to receive a degree in parks, recreation and tourism management in honor of his mother and late father, per ESPN's Turron Davenport and TennesseeTitans.com's Jim Wyatt.

"It's important because I come from a family where not a lot of people graduated," Hopkins said.

"I vowed that I would make both of them proud and graduate, and that was something that I promised my mom that I would do, knowing that my father would want me to graduate college."

Hopkins said his love of country music festivals led to an interest in facility management, so it seems fortuitous that his July free-agency signing took him to Music City.

That passion might have been part of what inspired Hopkins to make the Titans his first visit in free agency after his May release by the Arizona Cardinals.

Hopkins has previously credited his football success to what he described to Yahoo Parenting in 2015 as an "unbreakable bond" with his mother, Sandra Greenlee.

Greenlee is the founder of S.M.O.O.O.T.H. (Speaking. Mentally. Outwardly. Opening. Opportunities. Toward. Healing.), a nonprofit helping women who have suffered domestic violence. Greenlee, a survivor herself, was partially blinded by an acid attack when Hopkins was 10.

Hopkins helps manage S.M.O.O.O.T.H., per Davenport, and has partnered with the charity on multiple fundraising initiatives.

On the field, Hopkins has made 11 catches for 105 yards through his first two games as a Titan.

Due to suspension and injury, Hopkins missed 15 games for the Cardinals over the past two seasons. That pattern looked set to continue when Hopkins injured his ankle at the tail end of the Titans' Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Hopkins played through the ankle injury in Week 2's overtime win against the Los Angeles Chargers, but his status for Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns is currently "TBD," per TennesseeTitans.com's Jim Wyatt.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, who is working his way back from a torn ACL suffered last December, posted an encouraging TikTok where he's seen doing squats with a dumbbell while these captions rolled across the screen.

"I tore my ACL 8 months ago," Murray wrote (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). "This is the only major injury I've had. I've never missed the game like this. I'm itching to get back. You learn a lot about yourself in these types of moments. To those of you who ride with me, support me, speak up for me, I appreciate you more than you'll ever know. I won't let us down. Soon."

No concrete timeline has been given for Murray's return, but he will miss at least the next two games after he was placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list in August.

Murray suffered the injury on a non-contact play on Dec. 12 against the New England Patriots during a scramble. He was carted off the field and later ruled out for the season.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon has said he anticipates Murray to return at some point this year. He also said in July that Murray would be ready to return "when he tells me."

In the interim, the Cardinals have rolled with Josh Dobbs as their quarterback. Dobbs has fared well, completing 68.9 percent of his passes for 360 yards and a touchdown. He's also rushed for 38 yards and another score.

Arizona has started 0-2, but the team has fought hard, losing close games to the Washington Commanders (20-16) and New York Giants (31-28). They'll look to get in the win column Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

As for Murray, he would in theory be eligible to return as early as Oct. 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals. He will miss the Cowboys matchup and an Oct. 1 road contest versus the San Francisco 49ers.

The Arizona Cardinals are off to a rough start to the 2023 season, and they had even more bad news on Monday.

The team announced that star safety Budda Baker has been placed on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury, which rules him out for at least the next four games.

Per team reporter Darren Urban, Baker injured his hamstring in Friday's practice, which caused him to be ruled out of Sunday's game against the New York Giants. The presence of the five-time Pro Bowler likely would've helped stop Arizona from blowing leads of 20-0 and 28-7 on their way to a 31-28 loss.

At 0-2, the Cardinals look to be on the verge of a lost season. Baker's absence will not help, as he is one of the most important defensive players on the team. The seven-year veteran has never missed more than two games in a single season.

Baker had requested to be traded from Arizona this offseason after not receiving a long-term deal, but the Cardinals raised his salary for the last two years remaining on his contract. Still, he drew trade interest from around the league, as Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports linked the Philadelphia Eagles to him.

"I've been talking to a bunch of people in Arizona about this for months, and months, and months--I know the Eagles are interested in a safety, but it just seems Budda Baker is off the table," Kerr said on Philadelphia's 97.5 The Fanatic.

The Cardinals have also been working through the absence of quarterback Kyler Murray, who remains out while recovering from a torn ACL.

Things won't get any easier for the Cardinals, as they will host the Dallas Cowboys (2-0) in Week 3.