Vikings Fan Craig Kilborn Weighs In on Minnesota’s Kyler Murray Acquisition

Craig Kilborn has been following the Minnesota Vikings since Chuck Foreman was a rookie. He has thoughts on Kyler Murray.

The first thought was about height.

"I don't like short quarterbacks," Kilborn said. "I like tall guys. I don't like passes batted down at the line of scrimmage. But then when I heard what was available, I said you better get him because he is talented."

Rich gave the full Murray briefing. The Heisman hype. The size question that has been a "massive question mark." The ability, when on, to be a big problem for defenses.

"Big problem to defenses," Kilborn repeated. "Yeah, a big problem to defenses."

The Murray weirdness file came up. The Arizona contract clause about iPad usage. The Super Bowl appearance before his draft where he refused to confirm football over baseball. Rich noted that Murray went on Dan Patrick and refused to acknowledge he would even play football, after doing the same thing on the show hours earlier.

"There's just too much weird," Kilborn said. "I've heard that."

Rich added the ending in Arizona to the file.

"I've never seen anybody take a football off the face mask and then have a foot injury over it," Rich said. "Never seen that before."

Kilborn pivoted to where his real Vikings frustration lives. With head coach Kevin O'Connell.

"Tremendous coach, very likable guy, very positive," Kilborn said. "But he has, we have an issue, we have an issue."

His complaint started years ago and has migrated.

"First it was, he was too pass-happy, wouldn't run the ball," Kilborn said. "Now he seems to understand the marriage of the run-pass game."

The new frustration is about pass length.

"He likes long passing routes, and it drives me and others up the wall," Kilborn said. "Throw the short passes. Mix it up, man. One of my favorite plays is the screen pass. Mix it up."

Kilborn cited the London game against Cleveland, where the Vikings finished a drive with Carson Wentz going 9-for-9 with no timeouts on short passes to Jordan Addison. O'Connell, in Kilborn's telling, was on record afterward saying chunk plays are necessary because you cannot run 12 or 15-play drives.

"Mix it up, please," Kilborn said.

Rich offered the counter. Justin Jefferson is a chunk-play generator in his own right.

"He's double-teamed a lot," Kilborn said. "I'm just saying, I need shorter passing routes sometimes."

The JJ McCarthy question got the longer answer. Kilborn wants to give the rookie more time and is open about being concerned that the franchise has not.

"I love him," Kilborn said. "I haven't given up on him."

He pointed to history.

"Rich Gannon was with the Vikings, then he won the MVP elsewhere," Kilborn said. "JJ has something, okay? I was surprised that his throwing motion was off, is what people were telling me, but I haven't given up on him."

The current setup, in Kilborn's read, is a competition Murray will probably win because of pedigree. Behind a roster with Jefferson, Addison, Jauan Jennings, Aaron Jones and TJ Hockenson, plus an improved line, Kilborn thinks the Vikings will win a lot of games. That gives McCarthy another year to sit. And then the cycle starts again.

"You let him walk, or do you just say, sorry JJ, the time is now come for us to move on," Kilborn said.

The all-time alternate-universe play Kilborn wanted came last year.

"I wanted Aaron Rodgers as our quarterback last year, cuz I think he's as gifted as they come," Kilborn said.

Rich added the part of the story he knew firsthand.

"Another guy that wanted to see Aaron Rodgers in Minnesota was Aaron Rodgers," Rich said. "He was highly interested."

Kilborn lit up at the lost what-if.

"Oh, I would have loved that," Kilborn said. "That would have been, you know, another Favre-ian."

The Brett Favre Vikings year still stands as the proof point.

"Favre with the Vikings, this is just weird," Kilborn said. "He had his best statistical year ever with the Vikings in his NFL career. Better than any Green Bay."

Then he added the Favre clincher, with a long pause.

"Up until that last throw," Kilborn said.