TEMPE, Ariz. -- Kyler Murray stood in front of his locker on Sunday afternoon still in the grass-stained white pants he wore against the Philadelphia Eagles, his eye black still under his left eye, when Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork walked up to him with his hand extended.
The two dapped each other up, a quick and meaningful celebration for the pair after Murray played a nearly perfect second half in an upset win over the Eagles. Then, like they do after every game, home or away, win or loss, Murray and Woolfork sat down at Murray's locker to debrief what happened over the last three hours.
It's become part of their routine, a way for them to talk through the game and clear their heads when it's all still fresh. After losses, the two will talk upward of 25 minutes. This meeting didn't last nearly that long. There's always things to fix, as any player or coach will say, but there wasn't much to dissect this time.
After a few minutes, Woolfork walked to the bus and Murray headed for the shower.
"He's really receptive," Murray said of Woolfork. "He'll shoot you straight but also can hear you out and understand what I'm seeing and what I'm feeling. We just bounce back ideas. I think that's something that you've got to have in this game.
"Every quarterback coach that's kind of the go-to guy as far as in your corner, talking to you throughout the day."
Woolfork hasn't just been an ear for Murray after games. He's been Murray's mentor all year, guiding him through a new offense, new footwork and through his return from ACL surgery.
And through it all, the two have developed a bond and built a relationship that's helped Murray return to the quarterback he was before his injury.
"Izzy's been great," Murray added. "He's helped me out tremendously."
When Woolfork was hired by offensive coordinator Drew Petzing as the quarterbacks coach, he brought two specific traits to Arizona that helped him not only relate to Murray but become his closest advisor on the coaching staff: A deep knowledge of the offense and a coaching style that fit everyone in the quarterbacks room.
Woolfork, who was with Petzing for the last two seasons in Cleveland, came to the Cardinals knowing the offense inside and out. It's largely similar to what the Browns ran a year ago.
Knowing the offense was one thing, but knowing how to teach and coach it to the most important position on the field was its own challenge.
Woolfork prides himself on not having a one-size-fits-all approach. He tries to adapt his coaching persona to the players he's coaching. In Murray, Woolfork has a quiet, introverted person, who's relatively stoic unless something on the field goes horribly wrong or incredibly well. When Murray jogs to the sideline during games, he finds a mirror image of that stoicism in Woolfork. He's never too high or too low, Petzing said.
"He's got a great demeanor," former Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy said. "He's very calming."
That approach isn't accidental.
He's been intentional with how he's built his own style. He studied how younger players learn these days, whether it's in an auditory, visual or kinesthetic style.
"I think that we tend as coaches to draw a line like, 'This is this is the way I'm doing it. This is my process. This is how it should be done,'" Woolfork said. "Which I think is kind of barbaric.
"I don't want to get up here and preach and stand on my pedestal and do my job. Like, 'I'm here to help you at the end of the day. How can I serve you guys? What do you need for me to be the best player possible?'"
Figuring out that some players learn better by working on the board or by taking notes or by going through a walk-through has allowed Woolfork to connect with each player individually, but also bring them along at the same pace.
"He gives the same level of detail to everybody and just knows, maybe, for certain guys there's little, certain things that he needs to touch on a little bit more than others," said former Cardinals quarterback Jeff Driskel.
Woolfork's approach is the culmination of reading books, doing research, coaching college players for nine years at Miami (Ohio) and looking back at what he liked and didn't like from coaches as a player. He also studied it.
Woolfork began his master's in sports psychology while he was a graduate assistant before becoming a full-time coach for the Redhawks. He has brought with him a depth of knowledge about how players think and how he wants to coach -- the Cardinals also have a team psychologist who talked to the team daily during training camp.
"We're all different," Murray said. "But [Woolfork's] the same guy no matter who he's coaching. That's what you want. I'm not an up-and-down type of guy. I'm even-keeled for the most part. I've dealt with the opposite and it's nice to have that steady guy no matter what. I've seen him with [former Cardinals quarterback Joshua] Dobbs and I've seen him with Clayton in the heat of battle, how he acts and the way he goes about it. You don't want to come to the sideline and the guy is tweaking out or anything like that, so he's been solid for me."
One of the reasons why Petzing wanted Woolfork to join him in Arizona was because of Woolfork's ability to develop relationships with his players.
That's exactly what he did in Arizona, starting with Murray. Woolfork set out to build a personal trust with Murray and the other quarterbacks long before he was able to coach them. He wanted to know everything about Murray: How does he learn? How does he like to warm up? How can Woolfork help Murray improve?
The work that Woolfork put in with Murray early in the offseason was the foundation for those postgame chats at Murray's locker.
Between getting Murray ready to play this season and getting Deshaun Watson and the other Browns quarterbacks ready to play last season, Woolfork has already learned how to handle the type of adversity the NFL throws at coaches.
The next step, whenever that may be, would be handling it and teaching like only he knows how as a coordinator, something Petzing "absolutely" believes Woolfork can be.
"There's no job in this business that I don't think he can handle," Petzing said, "And do at a high level."