Apparently The A's Believe That Kyler Murray Is Declaring For The NFL Draft

Kayce Smith1/10/2019 3:54 AM

“The A’s expect Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, the team’s top pick last June, to declare for the NFL draft on Sunday, multiple sources told The Chronicle on Wednesday.
Declaring for the draft does not guarantee that Murray, an outfielder Oakland selected ninth overall, will decide to reject his $4.66 million deal with the A’s outright, but it certainly increases the chances that Oklahoma’s star quarterback will decide to go pro in football rather than baseball.
Should Murray, 21, opt to enter the NFL draft, the real question will come Feb. 15 when A’s position players report to Mesa, Ariz. — Murray has an invite to big-league camp. He could still opt to be in the A’s camp, but the NFL scouting combine begins Feb. 26 and any high-round hopeful would be expected to attend. That’s when Murray would have to make a decision between football and baseball, and one source told The Chronicle that Murray, a likely first-round NFL pick, is leaning toward football.”

Here. We. Go.

I realize this is only being reported by one outlet right now and Twitter is losing it’s mind. But neither the Heisman trophy winner nor his agent Scott Boras has said anything yet.

BUT if this is true, this will shock a lot of people. Whenever Kyler decided to return to Oklahoma instead of going straight into baseball, there was a lot of noise of how crazy that decision was. (I didn’t think it was crazy, for the record.) And if he’s forgoing baseball all together, that noise is about to get lot louder.

The argument I hear the most centers around the guaranteed money. Baseball = yes. Football = no (outside of your signing bonus). And then longevity of careers, wear and tear of your body getting beat to shit every Sunday, etc etc.

Here’s the thing people seemingly keep forgetting though. Just because you are drafted in the first round in baseball doesn’t guarantee you a spot on a MLB roster. He could be stuck in the minors for years. And God forbid he ends up like Mark Appel.

But if he gets drafted in the first round of the NFL draft, he’s going to 100% get a shot to prove he can make an NFL team immediately.

And biggest thing for me: maybe the kid just likes football more. Who can blame him?

If that’s the route he takes, the question is how will a 5’10” (as listed and we all know that’s usually adding a couple bonus inches) QB pan out in the NFL? Could he be like Russell Wilson? Or will the game be so much faster, bigger and stronger that his glory days at OU will be just that? Or will teams try to move him around to other positions? Would he even be ok with that? (My gut says no)

As the SFC article pointed out, the A’s position players report on 02.15 and Kyler has an invite to big-league camp. Except the NFL Combine starts 02.26. That’s when the Heisman trophy winner would have to make the decision between football and baseball. And of course another key is that Kyler and his agent will know his draft grade well before he has to make that decision… if they don’t already.

But you’d have to assume that he’s going to be a high pick this year if he’s even debating it.

I’m selfish and I’d rather see him continue to play football. Why? Because I like the sport more and he’s electric. But I 1000% understand the other side of it as well.

The last time we heard from Scott Boras on this issue during Winter Meetings…

“When you win the Heisman Trophy, you’re going to have a lot of information come to you to be looked at. All I know is Kyler has a tremendous opportunity to be a great baseball player and he knows that. … He has every intention to be in spring training and advance that interest.”

All I know is that I can’t imagine being good enough at one thing at 21 years old for people to throw millions of dollars at me. Let alone two.

And again, if he likes football more, he likes football more. Good for him.