Offensive Players of Week: Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson living video-game lives

Since he trolled all his critics and announced his partnership with Call of Duty, Kyler Murray is 4-1. The Cardinals quarterback is putting up video-game numbers to help Arizona reach first place in the NFC West. Meanwhile, “video game” was how Lamar Jackson described the Ravens’ latest barnburner with the Bengals last week. Murray and Jackson are the respective NFC and AFC Players of the Month, the league announced Wednesday afternoon.

Murray, who was 22 of 24 for 266 yards with a passing touchdown in Arizona’s 31-6 victory over the Jets, told Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com that playing video games is an important outlet for him. They’ve helped this season, considering that Murray had as many incompletions as rushing touchdowns against New York and became the fifth quarterback all-time with 30 rushing touchdowns within his first six NFL seasons. Wednesday’s award marked the sixth of Murray’s career, a franchise-record for an Arizona quarterback, one more than Hall of Famer Kurt Warner (five).

Jackson has now combined with Derrick Henry for five of the 10 AFC Offensive Player of the Week awards in 2024. The quarterback claimed his third weekly honor this season (also Weeks 5 and 7) by leading the Ravens to a 35-34, comeback victory over Cincinnati on Thursday. Jackson — in connecting on 25 of 33 attempts (75.8 percent) for 290 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions, a 141.4 passer rating – became only the third player in NFL history with 275-plus passing yards and at least a 100 rating in six consecutive games. He also became just the fourth quarterback in league annals with a passer rating of at least 100 in eight consecutive games within a season.

No one in Ravens history has more weekly awards than Jackson (13). Justin Tucker had led the franchise with 12 career special teams honors.

Murray and the Cardinals (6-4) are on their bye week. Jackson and the Ravens (7-3) face an AFC North showdown at home against Pittsburgh (7-2) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

For more information on the Cardinals and Ravens, visit the Arizona and Baltimore team pages at ProFootballPost.com.