'I thought Kyler Murray was short as hell!' - Dede Westbrook on his first meeting with NFL’s newest superstar

EXCLUSIVE
First pick: Kyler Murray
AP

Dede Westbrook remembers clearly his first meeting with the NFL’s newest superstar.

It was during his senior year at the University of Oklahoma, and Kyler Murray, who on Thursday night was made the number one overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, had just arrived as a transfer from Texas A&M.

“When I first met Kyler, I was like, 'He's short as hell!',” says Westbrook, now an NFL star in his own right, playing wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. “He's short, that was my first thought when I saw him.”

At a smidge over 5-foot-10, Murray is indeed on the small side for a man about to play quarterback in the NFL. Ahead of the 2019 draft, which began in Nashville on Thursday night and continues through the weekend, size was the biggest question mark next to his name, but that didn’t stop the Arizona Cardinals putting the future of their franchise in his hands.

Westbrook, like the Cardinals, remembers quickly realising the talent within.

Murray became the Cardinals' second succesive first-round quarterback after they took Josh Rosen last year 
Getty Images

“I saw him working out,” Westbrook recalls. “I saw him run, and he's got a pretty good start off, you know, to run the football.

“Then I saw him throw. I thought he was a damn good passer. He can easily sit there and throw the ball 60 or 70 yards. And given that he's that small, being able to sling the ball like that, with accuracy, makes him a damn good football player.”

Mobile, slight quarterbacks with rockets for arms are the soup of the day, after Patrick Mahomes’ mind boggling 50 touchdown MVP season with the Kansas City Chiefs. As is the case with Mahomes, whose father was a major league pitcher, baseball is a well-documented part of the Kyler Murray story. The multi-talented Texan was the ninth overall selection in the 2018 MLB Draft, earning a multi-million-dollar contract with the Oakland Athletics, which he has now let go.

As he starts his NFL career, though, it is with another young quarterback that Murray is most likely to be compared.

His predecessor under centre for the Oklahoma Sooners was none other than last year’s number one draft pick, Baker Mayfield, who he also succeeded as winner of the Heisman Trophy – the top individual award in college football.

Knowing both, Westbrook says he has “no doubt” that Murray can have a similar impact on the league to that which Mayfield had in his rookie season with the Cleveland Browns. He also believes that Murray’s attitude during the time when NCAA eligibility rules forced to sit behind Mayfield at Oklahoma made it clear that his future lay with ball, rather than bat, in hand.

Westbrook is in the UK for the free two-day Jaguars London Fan Festival this weekend on the Southbank 
Jacksonville Jaguars

“I kind of knew he wasn't gonna play baseball,” Westbrook says. “This man has been successful in football his whole life. What did he go in high school, like 42-0? Never lost a game - nobody can just give football up like that.

“He comes over to the University of Oklahoma and Baker's the star there. He has to sit out of football for a whole year to watch this man lead his team, and then he comes back and wins the Heisman.

“Baker doing what he did and then leaving, and he left it to Kyler. That's more pressure than anything and look how he managed to go out there and play his way of football and come out on top.”

Murray’s drafting is unique in a number of ways. No man has ever been selected in the first round of both the NFL and MLB drafts before. No school has ever had two quarterbacks go in the first round of successive drafts before, let alone as first picks.

Westbrook’s draft story is, by contrast, more familiar. For every Murray, or Mayfield, who have their dreams made reality within minutes of Commissioner Roger Goodell declaring the draft open, there are hundreds like Westbrook made to wait for days to learn their fate.

In 2017, Westbrook was considered by many scouts to be a top-50 talent, but doubts about his character after past misdemeanours saw many steer clear.

“I was just sitting there waiting for each name to come because I didn't know,” Westbrook says. “I was kind of upset during the draft process, because I felt like I deserved to go higher.

“It made me question my talent, because I felt like I'd done everything I could do in college, I'd done a lot of things that a lot of footballers didn't do. I went to the Heisman as a wide-receiver - not too many people have done that.”

Westbrook, left, with fellow 2017 Heisman nominees, including Baker Mayfield (second right) 
Getty Images

Eventually, it was the Jaguars who pounced, nabbing Westbrook at incredible value with the 110th pick, in round four.

“Coach Coughlin called and said, 'Dede?'. I said, 'Yes sir?', and he was like 'I just want you to know, we're going to be taking you here with this next pick, to the Jaguars'.

“I got super excited. It was relief. I was like, ‘Thank God!’”

Two seasons into his Jaguars career, and off the back of a breakout campaign in which he led the team in receiving yards, catches and touchdowns, Westbrook can watch the draft a little more easily.

He’s currently in London, where on Saturday night as part of the Jags’ 2019 London Fan Festival on the Southbank, he’ll be announcing one of the franchise’s draft picks live.

“I'm super excited,” he says. “Having that chance to call somebody's name, knowing that it will change not only their lives, but their family's lives.”

And what if it’s another wide receiver? A wry smile. “We're going to compete, but may the best man win.”

For more information about the London Fan Festival click here.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in