When asked toward the beginning of training camp if the Arizona Cardinals top three wideouts could each accumulate 1,000 receiving yards this season, quarterback Kyler Murray did not hesitate with his response.
"I definitely think that's possible," he said.
That group consists of receivers DeAndre Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk. The latter of which has not been able to complete a full 16-game season in his first two years as a professional due to injuries.
Earlier this offseason, Kirk said one of his primary goals is to stay healthy and available this year. He took the time Thursday, the final day of training camp, to correct the injury prone label he gave himself.
"I think it's definitely going to be important for me to stay healthy," Kirk said. "I feel like that's every player's goal, is to play all 16 games. Now that I look back on me saying I try not to be labeled as injury prone, I feel like I was a little harsh for me to put that on myself. My injury my rookie year was some freak accident. You can't really prevent a broken bone while you're running an out-route; that's just something that you can't prevent. And then last year it was just a freak tackle and those are two things that if you put somebody else in that situation, the same thing might happen regardless of how well you take care of your body or not.
"I've always taken pride since coming out of being in college and since being a rookie in the NFL, taking care of my body. And I feel I do a great job of that. I haven't had any soft-tissue injuries or whatnot, so looking back on it, it's just two injuries that just happened. It's part of playing football. And so, I'm not going to be harsh on myself and try to fight the label of injury prone because I don't feel like those two cases were what it was. If I was having a pulled hamstring every couple of weeks or whatnot, then we may be having a different conversation. But, obviously, the goal for me this year is to stay healthy, but football is football. Things are going to come up and we're just going to have to battle adversity if it comes up."
As a rookie, Kirk broke his foot before suffering an ankle sprain a year later in Week 5 and dealing with persistent ankle issues.
Last season, while dealing with lagging issues that limited him to 13 games (all starts), Kirk improved in every major statistical category from his rookie year. He jumped from 68 targets to 108, 43 receptions to 68, 590 receiving yards to 709 and equaled his rookie touchdown total with three.
If he is to eclipse those numbers in his third year, Kirk needs to be available for the entire season. It is even more important with the addition of Hopkins, as there possibly might be fewer targets available for him.
September 04, 2020 at 06:18AM
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Kirk Shedding 'Injury Prone' Label - Sports Illustrated
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