The San Francisco 49ers allowed Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray to have 542 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns in 2024. Murray had a 50-yard touchdown run in Week 5. On the season, Murray had six carries of at least 20 yards. He had another highlight-reel scramble last week against the Carolina Panthers for 30 yards.
The Niners have limited Sam Darnold and Spencer Rattler on the ground to a combined 28 rushing yards, although Rattler had two first-down runs. Murray is a different beast.
Anybody who has watched the 49ers’ defense throughout the years understands that mobile QBs have been their Achilles heel. Fred Warner acknowledged as much on Wednesday when speaking about Murray:
Kyler is always a really tough player to go against, one of the best in this league. I think the thing with Kyler, obviously, is his legs, the ability to make the off-schedule plays. That’s always kind of given us fits, him using his legs.
Warner believes Murray will make plays at the end of the day. It’s up to the defense to limit the damage. He also said, “I’m excited about the plan this week, and I think Saleh’s been good at it before, so he’s got some good tricks up his sleeve.”
What makes Murray such a challenge? Here’s Warner:
He’s slippery. He obviously has really great quickness and speed. Never ran a 40, so you don’t really know what the 40 time may be, but you can feel it out there on that field when you’re trying to run after him and he’s separating. But then, the ability to continue to look down the field and still be able to throw the football. So, he’s just very dynamic in a lot of ways.
Murray unofficially ran a 40 at Oklahoma in 2017 during spring practices. His time back then was a 4.38. On that 50-yard touchdown run above, he reached 21.27 miles per hour, which was the fastest speed by a quarterback in the last eight seasons. Suffice to say, he’s fast.
Nick Bosa echoed Warner about Saleh’s plan for Murray:
What it takes means very much about him and what he brings to the table, and how we need to rush him, how we need to take care of the QB run game, and their run game as a whole. So, I’m excited about the plan this week. I think Saleh’s been good at it before. He’s got some good tricks up his sleeve.
Saleh has faced Josh Allen multiple times over the years during his time with the New York Jets. He’s also seen Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields, and other scrambling quarterbacks, who have largely been held in check. We will see if that continues against Murray this Sunday.
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