With Kyler Murray again questionable for Sunday's game, GM Steve Keim said Murray "looked good throwing the ball around" in his first day back at practice Friday. He also said it'll likely come down to Murray whether the QB plays or not against the Panthers.
"It goes down to these guys understanding where their bodies are," Keim said during his appearance on the "Burns and Gambo" Show on 98.7, Arizona's Sports Station. "To me, it's going to come down to how Kyler feels on Sunday. It's really in his hands, and if he's comfortable enough to play, I'm sure he'll go. If not, we feel very confident in Colt (McCoy)."
-- The other day, running back Eno Benjamin said his turning point in his NFL career came with his exit interview with Keim after Benjamin's rookie season -- a year in which Kliff Kingsbury said Benjamin was "hanging by a thread" during the year. Keim went into detail about the conversation.
"When you were scouting him when the ball was in his hands, he had some special run skills," Keim said. "But there were other things when it came to attention to details, whether it was pass protection, getting in your playbook, all the little things it takes to be a pro were areas where he could've improved. I made it crystal clear to him, if those things don't change and you don't improve, you're going to be on the street and it'd be unfortunate because you have a lot of talent.
"That's the hard thing for me, when you see guys who have talent who don't quite get it. The worst thing to me is sitting back and look at the opportunity you once had and do the shoulda, coulda, woulda thing. That would be painful. ... Really proud of how he has come around. Not a bad guy, just had to so some of the little things more aggressively and he has taken off."
-- Keim called the work ethic of running back James Conner "second to none" and given that Conner is on a one-year deal, it's "safe to say we'd love to have him back." But the GM stopped short of saying it definitely would happen.
-- Does Keim think another team will pursue defensive coordinator Vance Joseph for a head coaching job? "I think if another team is smart they would," Keim said, "He is absolutely a leader of men in a number of ways. He has impressed us all here in this organization the last three years. Once he had his system implemented and the terminology was understood by our players, I think you saw our defense take off."
