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After a long wait and what appears to have been a really awesome trip to Busch Gardens, Aaron Murray is officially a Chief.
What are the Chiefs getting in Murray? A four year starter who never missed a game until the very end of his senior season when he went down with an unfortunate ACL tear. He holds almost every significant SEC passing record, including the records for completions (921), passing yards (13,166), touchdown passes (121), and total yards (13,562). He threw for over 3,000 yards all four years of his starting career in Athens, another accomplishment no one else in the SEC has ever secured.
Murray is, based on those numbers, insanely productive. The big knock on him outside Georgia is his height. But the big knock for me, and a lot of Bulldog fans, was his tendency to press a little in stressful situations, especially earlier in his career. Murray dealt with a terribly misleading perception that he couldn't handle big game environments. Which is weird given that he left Athens as the only Bulldog QB in recent memory with three wins over Florida (to whom he lost in overtime as a freshman after leading a valiant comeback). He has a winning record against every major Bulldog rival against whom he played more than one game (that 0-1 record against Clemson kind of stings, but hey, maybe he can throw a little patronage Tajh Boyd's way if the Tiger QB doesn't get drafted).
Murray finished his career with 354 yards rushing, including this memorable run against Tennessee.
He's also great at getting out of trouble and getting rid of the ball, perhaps partially because he played behind some spotty offensive lines during his time in Athens. Murray's actually pretty stoutly built for his size and will be a threat to tuck it and run at least on par with Alex Smith.
Maybe he'll break the Chiefs unbelievably abysmal streak of drafting quarterbacks. Maybe he's just there in case contract talks with starter Alex Smith remain stalled and they need another body to compete for the position (or more likely provide some insurance). Who knows. But he's a guy with a great football IQ who comes to work every day to get better. Congrats Aaron! And . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!