Arizona Cardinals: Scouting Report from preseason Week 1

Another area of concern that the Cardinals appeared to have is that any quarterback not named Carson Palmer was extremely inconsistent. While it’s expected for the offense to have a drop-off in production when a back is up, I never expected it to drop off that badly.

In the few series that Drew Stanton was in, I was very concerned with his accuracy – it was completely off. He would throw the balls straight into the ground; completely miss open receivers; looked rushed in the pocket when he had a clean pocket, and bad decision-making. Just a terrible outing for someone who last year (Cardinals) fans thought was just as good as Palmer.

It’s a concern for a few reasons, he is the heir apparent if by chance Palmer is to go down again. He didn’t make a strong case to keep hold of his number two spot on the quarterback depth chart. And to make matters worse, the other two quarterbacks behind him weren’t any better in all honesty.

Logan Thomas, and Phillip Sims showed a few moments of brilliance but overall the two showed they’re still projects—major projects.

On the bright side, Logan Thomas looks better than what he looked like just a year ago, but his decision-making still needs plenty of work. He doesn’t anticipate throws very well; he looks confused on his hot reads—indentifying blitzes, and then changing the route the “hot receiver” (the primary read) has to a much quicker route – like a slant or hitch.

Thomas is also inconsistent on his throwing itself—throws bullets when they should be touch passes; throws touch passes when they need to be bullets.

Under Palmer, the offense was clicking, while under the other three quarterbacks; the offense was scoreless for a total of two quarters, which allowed the Kansas City to make a roaring comeback.

If Palmer goes down again, might as well kiss the Cardinals chances good-bye at being anything but mediocre.

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