2012 Arizona Cardinals Preview: Common Sense Quarterback Thoughts

Since Friday night I've listened to and read every possible idea as to what is happening or what might happen with the Arizona Cardinals concerning the starting quarterback position. Everything between the ushering in of “Lindsanity” (starting Ryan Lindley), to signing Donovan McNabb, landing Colt McCoy or finding someone to “push John Skelton and Kevin Kolb."

Easy there everyone.

Barring a catastrophe in which both Skelton and Kolb come down with season-ending injuries, I would be beyond shocked if Lindley started at all this season or even worse (way, way worse), the Cards signed McNabb with the intention of starting him at quarterback.

Basically, this battle remains between Skelton and Kolb, period. I see no scenario in which Arizona would or should look outside for a quarterback.

I hate to burst a few bubbles, but let's not start calling for Lindley to be the starter. I like the kid. He has a good arm, makes solid reads and looks confident running the offense.

There's a difference, however, between running an offense against a vanilla third team defense versus against, oh, let's just say the starting defense for the San Francisco 49ers. Let the kid sit and develop for now, then check back with me August 2013.

Earlier this afternoon Jason La Canfora tweeted, “for the next two weeks Kevin Kolb will be given every chance to with the job as the Cards starter. We'll see if he takes advantage.” This should come as no surprise given what the organization gave up for Kolb. Kolb should be given every opportunity to earn the starting job, and I believe La Canfora is correct in stating that he in fact will be.

However, that tweet also tells me that, as reported by Adam Schefter earlier, Skelton is indeed currently winning the battle for the starting job. It's not a difficult conclusion to come to either.

Never mind the numbers, so far in the preseason Skelton has appeared to have better command of the offense and better pocket presence. Given more reps with the first team offense, it's hard to to imagine Skelton improving over the course of the season.

On the other hand, Kolb has looked shaky at times. His constantly moving out of the pocket at the first sign of trouble is still an issue, as is his holding the ball to long. What's even more telling is that, in my opinion, Kolb's lack of confidence is beginning to show in how the offense carries itself when he's on the field.

The bottom line is, Kolb has two more preseason games to prove to the coaching staff that he is the guy to run this Cardinals offense. Should he fail and Skelton get the job, there's no reason to think anyone else but Kolb would be in the backup role.

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