Charley Casserly made waves in NFL circles Tuesday for his report on Kyler Murray's interview with teams at the NFL Combine. Casserly spoke with multple team sources and said they were "the worst comments I ever got on a high-rated quarterback."
Full comments from @CharleyCasserly on Kyler Murray here: pic.twitter.com/tcUIckfGRU
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) March 5, 2019
The former Redskins and Texans general manager gave more details to The Sports Junkies Wednesday on what he had heard from NFL teams regarding Murray, who many have predicted will go No. 1 to the Cardinals during April's NFL Draft.
"I talked to multiple teams, and (the interview) wasn't very good," said Casserly. "The board work — where you test the guy on his football knowledge, his knowledge on his scheme and potential things he's seen in the NFL — was not very good at all."
"Seems like he's an instinctive, reactive player. I don't know if you'd call it street football, but obviously he's very good at it. The tape is very good, lot of great things on the tape."
"And you question his leadership ability, you question his work ethic. Those are the things that came out of the interviews. And it was multiple people, it wasn't just one team. So to me, he failed the interview."
Casserly made it clear "failing" this combine interview doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a bad NFL quarterback, but said Murray's interview specifically raised major concerns.
"I can tell you other quarterbacks that have gone to the playoffs and won that failed their interview at the combine," said Casserly. "And the whole key is the team's ability to adapt to what this player does, and then the player's ability to focus in and work hard."
"Football-wise, you're gonna have to figure out what (Patrick) Mahomes did, a little bit of Russell Wilson — not so much Mayfield ... But I said, he's none of those guys when it comes what appears to be leadership, work ethic and the ability to understand and grasp a system."
Casserly also said he'd heard worrying things about Murray before the combine from sources within baseball and at Texas A&M, where Murray played college football before transferring to Oklahoma.
"The baseball one — I'm gonna be very vague on it — led me to believe the interview was gonna be bad based on his experience with him in baseball," Casserly told the Junkies. "And I never touched that one, but obviously I'm calling him today and saying, 'You were right!'"
"And then the other one brought up, somebody texted me last night about some experiences at A&M and said, 'Hey, you got this guy. He does not have it, and et cetera.' I said, 'Ok, fine. I'm just reporting what three teams told me.'"
But despite all these concerns, Casserly still thinks Arizona will draft Murry with the first overall pick. Why? Kliff Kingsbury, the Cardinals' new head coach, who tried to recruit Murray to Texas Tech.
"If I've got Kingsbury, yeah," Casserly said. "If you're going that route (at head coach), the creative, young, innovative guy, you've gotta go with his quarterback. You can't force another quarterback on him, (Josh) Rosen."
"So to me, you gotta take the guy. And whether you trade Rosen or not is immaterial, because if you don't trade him, you've got two quarterbacks."
Follow Josh Luckenbaugh and 106.7 The Fan on Twitter.
