Kyler Murray's agent blasts Charley Casserly over negative comments about his client
If you rolled your eyes at the critical comments about Kyler Murray from NFL Network’s Charley Casserly, you weren’t alone.
It’s not that Casserly, a former NFL general manager, was necessarily making anything up when he said teams told him that Murray lacked in leadership and study habits and struggled drawing up plays for teams at the NFL scouting combine. We don’t know who told Casserly what. It’s just that it’s wholly predictable for teams to anonymously blast top quarterback prospects. It happens every year, it seems. Murray is just the latest.
Erik Burkhardt, Murray’s agent, saw Casserly’s comments. He has a client to protect and defend. And did he ever, in some angry comments to Pro Football Talk.
Kyler Murray’s agent has strong rebuttal
Burkhardt had a lot to say about Casserly’s comments, including saying that every team executive he talked to after the combine said Murray’s interviews were “extremely positive.” He said Casserly has never talked to Murray, and said Casserly should be “ashamed of himself” for ripping him.
And that was just the start.
“The bottom line here is that it calls into question the motives of a man to get on national television and cite anonymous sources on things such as ‘leadership’ and ‘study habits’ about somebody he’s never met,” Burkhardt told PFT. “Look, If you don’t like Kyler’s game, it’s cool. If you don’t like his size and want to talk about that, that’s fine, too. If you’re into a Heath Shuler-type looking guy, then hype those guys and say why. But when you slander the character and work ethic of a young man who’s worked his ass off his entire life and done everything right to put himself in his current position, you’d better cite your sources and come with a better record than 18-46 as a G.M. of the Texans, and whose own leadership and accountability has been questioned by his old bosses and colleagues, as well as the greatest coach on the planet.”
Casserly drafted Heath Shuler, a memorable bust. And the final line is in reference to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick saying in 2014, “Who's been wrong more than Charley Casserly since he left the Redskins?”
Comments about Murray got a lot of attention
It’s worth pointing out that Casserly wasn’t saying he personally was put off by Murray. He was relaying that the comments he heard from teams were the worst he had heard about a top quarterback prospect. Casserly presumably still knows a lot of people in NFL front offices.
Burkhardt has a stake in defending Murray, to say the least, and trashing Casserly. So does Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, who went on “The Dan Patrick Show” and said everything he heard about Murray’s interviews was “basically the complete opposite of what Charley [Casserly] said.”
It really doesn’t seem like it will matter. The Arizona Cardinals seem set on Murray as the first overall pick, although coach Kliff Kingsbury denies that’s the case. If the Cardinals like Murray, whatever anyone else says about him before the draft doesn’t matter too much.
But hopefully this feud keeps going, because it’s getting pretty good.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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