Over the course of his career, Kyler Murray has dealt with a myriad of injuries. Are they enough for him to be considered injury prone?
When the Minnesota Vikings signed quarterback Kyler Murray , one of the biggest elements of the discussion was his injury history. After only playing in five games in the 2025 season, it was a big question that was accentuated by J.J. McCarthy missing 25 of his first 35 possible games.
The best ability is availability, and the Vikings need that at quarterback badly. Over head coach Kevin O'Connell 's first four seasons at the helm, the Vikings have had at least three starting quarterbacks in two of them. Being that Murray has a reputation for being hurt, I took a look at his injury history to get to the bottom of it.
Murray has been injured frequently in his career, but not all injuries are created equal. Let's take a look at his injury history . Based on the narratives, you'd expect it to be expansive. The reality is different than that.
| Year |
Injury |
Games Missed |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 |
Hamstring |
0 |
| 2020 |
Shoulder |
0 |
| 2021 |
Ankle sprain |
3 |
| 2022 |
Hand/wrist |
0 |
| 2022 |
Hamstring |
2 |
| 2022/2023 |
Torn ACL |
13 |
| 2025 |
Foot |
12 |
He's been relatively banged up at times, but three of the injuries that have landed him on the injury report didn't cost him a game. That's par for the course in the NFL. Tom Brady was on the New England Patriots ' injury report for the better part of a decade with a shoulder injury.
Everyone gets hurt during the course of the season, it's inevitable. You'll get bruises and muscle pulls all the time, and the hope is they won't cause you to miss games.
| Year |
Games Played |
Games Missed |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 |
16 |
0 |
| 2020 |
16 |
0 |
| 2021 |
14 |
3 |
| 2022 |
11 |
6 |
| 2023 |
8 |
9 |
| 2024 |
17 |
0 |
| 2025 |
5 |
12 |
| Total |
87 |
30 |
In the seven seasons that Murray has been in the NFL, he's had three seasons where he played in every game, and in 2023, he didn't get injured, but rather still healing from the torn ACL he suffered in 2022.
30 games missed out of 117 is a rate of 25.6%. That's nowhere near ideal. However, 27 of those 30 games were from just two injuries. It's also worth noting that Murray could have possibly returned in 2025, but they chose to shut him down instead after his foot injury didn't progress nearly as much as they wanted it to
"He had some more tests done this week, went out of state, got another opinion on it. It's not progressing to where it's going to make sense that he can go. So he's going to be done for the year."
The rate of 25.6% is significant, especially when you compare the number of missed games to other top quarterbacks in the league.
| Player |
Games Missed |
Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 6 |
4.05% |
|
| 15 |
11.36% |
|
| 4 |
4% |
|
| 23 |
23% |
|
| 4 |
3% |
|
| 3 |
3% |
|
| 8 |
8% |
|
| 2 |
1.21% |
|
| 35 |
12.77% |
|
| 10 |
14.71% |
One thing to keep in mind with injuries is the luck of when they get suffered. If Murray had suffered his torn ACL at a different time, he might have missed a few less games. Burrow tore his ACL in the 10th game of his rookie year and only missed the final six games. Murray missed 13 with the same injury. Mahomes is set to miss just a few games with a Week 1 return with his torn ACL. Missing games with serious injuries is often just as much about when you get injured than getting the injury itself.
If Murray had suffered his serious injuries just a few weeks later and missed 10 less games, his percentage of games missed would drop over 8%. We would be talking about a different narrative with Murray when it comes to injuries.
Even though the narrative isn't what it's made out to be, Murray has still struggled to stay healthy, and it's not because he's taking unnecessary hits. One of his best traits is avoiding hits. ACL and foot injuries like Murray's are somewhat random, and it should be in consideration when talking about his injury history.
The reality is simple: the narratives aren't telling the whole story.
