Breaking: Kyler Murray declares for 2019 NFL Draft

The 2019 quarterback class has gained one more intriguing option.

On the last day for underclassmen to declare for the NFL Draft, Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray officially threw his name into the ring.

This was expected by many, including the Oakland A’s, who drafted Murray ninth overall in the MLB Draft over the summer. Declaring for the NFL Draft does not mean Murray has to be 100 percent committed to the NFL, but if he wanted to keep that option open, he had to declare by Monday’s deadline. However, it does seem like Murray wants to play football — he already chose to play football for free for a season while already having a signed baseball contract — and he’ll need to be swayed to continue with baseball.

There were reports over the weekend that the A’s and Murray had been discussing terms that would give him a major league worthy contract to stick with baseball and that MLB would allow it, even though it’s against the rules for draftees.

In reality, we’ll know more about Murray’s situation as Spring Training and the NFL Combine get closer and the timeline to choose gets shorter. This is not the final detail in the Murray story, but it is the first step.

We’ll talk about Murray much more in the upcoming months. Our Big Blue Big Board podcast on Friday started to dive into what Murray declaring could mean for the Giants.