What’s Going on With the Most Intriguing Prospect of the 2019 NFL Draft?

After he was drafted and signed by the Oakland A’s of Major League Baseball, no one in the NFL thought that Kyler Murray was going to play football.

Then, the Oklahoma quarterback threw for 364 yards and rushed for 114 in a massive 59-56 win over West Virginia and a couple of NFL scouts who were in attendance began to think there was a chance he might choose football.

Now, after winning the Heisman, the chance of Murray choosing the NFL over MLB has turned into somewhat of a coin flip as he declared himself eligible for the 2019 NFL draft despite still being under contract with the A’s.

What Murray chooses to do over the next few months will tell us a lot about which way he is leaning as there are a number of NFL-related activities which are in direct conflict with his baseball duties.

Murray is due at spring training with the A’s on February 15. If he doesn’t show there but then does work out during the four-day quarterback portion of the scouting combine in Indianapolis beginning on February 27, that will reveal a lot.

If he does pick football, most scouts think Murray will go in the first 32 picks of the draft and would go even higher if he was taller and stronger.

The undersized quarterback could also help his draft stock by convincing NFL teams at the combine in Indy that he is all-in on football.

“Missing on that position will get you fired,” said an AFC college scouting director. “So if we’re going to make that kind of investment in you [as a first-round pick], we need to know that you’re as into us as we’re into you.”

UPDATE 2/7: According to the NF”s official list of participants, Murray has confirmed he will attend this month’s NFL Combine.