Heisman Winner Kyler Murray Faces Tough Questions at NFL Combine

When he turned his back on the Oakland A’s and the prospect of playing pro baseball earlier this month, Kyler Murray said he was “firmly and fully committing my life and time to becoming an NFL quarterback.”

At the upcoming NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Murray will have his first opportunity to start putting his money where his mouth was two weeks ago.

However, NFL teams may not be as confident about his future plans as he says he is. They not only have questions about Kyler Murray’s physical size—he was listed at 5’10” and 195 pounds in college, though some pro scouts believe he’s really two inches shorter and ten pounds lighter—but also about the size of his desire to play professional football.

And there are also some who have concerns that Murray—who was dominant playing quarterback at Oklahoma—will be able to transition to the faster, more physical pro game.

If he does struggle, there’s little keeping Murray from switching right back to baseball, so NFL teams may try to gauge his long-term resolve to compete in their more bruising sport.

“If it was me, I might tell him, ‘I’m drafting you, but you’re sitting for the first two years because we have a quarterback,’” one AFC official told USA Today. “See how he responds to that, what he says, watch his body language.”

No matter what he says at the combine, it seems very likely at least one NFL team will like Murray enough to take him in the first round.

“He’s a hard one. He’s really good, he throws the ball well, there are no throws that he can’t make on any level,” said a college scouting director for an AFC team. “And I don’t think him being small is that big a problem, but when you’re small and you run like he can, I’m not sure how you wouldn’t be a little concerned. … You have to build it around him, but he’s pretty good. … And you gotta be real with yourself too, if you want to take him. You may have a second-round grade on him—I think a lot of people do—but if you think you’re getting him in the second round, you’re probably not.”