Cardinals QB corps... last in the league?

[Wild Card]

In the 7/12 issue of The Sporting News, local reporter Kent Somers awarded the Cardinals quarterbacks corps a position grade of "C-", tying them with the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers for the league's lowest rating. Here's what Somers wrote:

Coach Dennis Green is one of the few people who isn't worried about this position. He anointed Josh McCown the starter months ago, even though McCown has just three career starts. He doesn't have a big arm, but it's strong enough. McCown is an exceptional athlete who provides an additional weapon with his running ability. The team seemed to rally around him last season. Free-agent signee Shaun King is the backup. He barely has played the last three seasons with the Buccaneers and hasn't stood out in the offseason, but he's bright and has played in big games. Rookie John Navarre has a nice arm and good pocket presence, but he lacks mobility.

Hard to argue with, IMO. And hard to make a case for the Cards rating higher than 3rd in their own division, with Marc Bulger, Chris Chandler and Jeff Smoker in St. Louis, and Matt Hasselbeck, Trent Dilfer and Brock Huard in Seattle.

Any dissenting opinions?

WC

 

[jw7]

Any dissenting opinions?

WC

Yeah, I'll somewhat disagree with McCown not having a big arm. The dude throws bullets.

It's just lack of experience and decision-making that is in question. This is his first season as a starter, but he has a lot of talented weapons to throw to.

Frankly, if he is not #1 or #2 in passing yards in the NFC west by the end of the season, I'll be dissapointed.

 

[az jam]

Cards will continue to get poor position rankings until they start winning on the field. One dosen't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that. Hopefully DG will turn it around soon. (like this year!)

 

[Codeofhammurabi]

McCown is it, so we need to back him.

McCown has a lot of tools, but has little experience. Watching the last three games last season, he moved the team as well, or better, than Jeff Blake. Someone mentioned earlier that the team rallied around him, and he does seem to have possibilities of becoming a leader. He also comes in with something to prove, and a coach that has made some average quarterbacks look pretty good in the past.

GO CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[boilerjb07]

The pressure is definately on....the Cards have arguably the best receiver corps in the NFL. I think McCown can get the job done...not that we have another option since our running game is non-existent....

 

[blindseyed]

Cards will continue to get poor position rankings until they start winning on the field. One dosen't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that. Hopefully DG will turn it around soon. (like this year!)

Absotively, hopefully McCown will do what Green is telling him. He used alot of QB's in Minn. Mc is young and will listen, so if he is any good, he should do fine. 3 games doesn't cut it with me, I gotta see what he does with some pressure to win on him. I don't particularly care who the QB is as long as they win!

 

[Wild Card]

Cards will continue to get poor position rankings until they start winning on the field. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that.

AJ:

That's not necessarily the case. In this same TSN survey--as I noted earlier--the Ravens were given an equally poor "C-" position grade for their QB group by Baltimore-area writer Mike Preston. (As Preston writes, "Opponents will put eight men in the box and force Baltimore to throw, something it did not do well last season. If the passing game gets better, the team is a Super Bowl contender.")

Winning doesn't automatically make every position on the roster look better. It does, however, help spotlight the weaknesses. It'll be nice if/when the Cards, like the Ravens, only have one or two positions left to upgrade, rather than half of the roster.

WC

 

[Skkorpion]

Kent will not pull his punches and he's been burned by waxing too positive about McGinnis. Not prone often to giving his opinion, Kent wrote a couple years back, that given time, Graves and McGinnis would turn the Cards around.

Now he'll be cautious and tend toward the negative. He's still an excellent reporter.

 

[TILLMANFAN]

How did the Sporting News rate the Rams QB's with Trent Green and Kurt Warner in July of 1999? Green had been mediocre at best and Warner was a nobody. That situation did not look good and got worse when Warner went down. Look at the un-drafted nobodies who have become starters like Kurt Warner, Jeff Garcia, Jake Delhomme. Look at late round picks such as Brad Johnson in the 9th round, Trent Green in the 8th round, Marc Bulger and Tom Brady in the 6th. What these former nobodies have in common is a great a coaching staff, great runningbacks(except Brady and Johnson) and excellent offensive lines. Green, Brady, Delhomme and Johnson do not even have a set of outstanding receivers.

The jury will be out until Josh can give us 16 good games. Dennis Grenn has proven his system is productive using old Qb's(Cunningham), rejects(George, Salisbury), late rounders(Johnson) and 1st rounders(Culpepper). We have the talent on the offesnive line. We have a head coach and staff who know what they are doing. Generating a good ground game will be essential to Joshs success. Josh will only be as successfull as the ground game. Hopefully Shipp will get with the program, work hard in the pre-season, learn to be a better blocker and win the starting job.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I know it doesn't mean anything, but was Josh in that Quarterback Challenge thing they do for tv this year? I think I remember reading about when it was going to be on tv, but I didn't see it.

They're always fun to watch, at least just to compare arm strength, etc.

 

[Wild Card]

How did the Sporting News rate the Rams QB's with Trent Green and Kurt Warner in July of 1999? Green had been mediocre at best and Warner was a nobody. That situation did not look good and got worse when (Green) went down.

TF:

Jim Thomas, who covered the Rams for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, gave the 1999 Rams QBs a "C" rating in that year's TSN season preview. Thomas wrote:

Prior to last season, Green had thrown only one pass in four NFL seasons... Who knows if Green can replicate or improve on last season's surprising performance. It's a $16.5 million roll of the dice... If Green can't cut it or is injured, there is only Kurt Warner and rookie Joe Germaine behind him. Warner, a former NFL Europe and Arena League star, has thrown 11 NFL passes.

And we all know how that worked out. After Green got hurt, Warner came out of nowhere to win a Super Bowl. Green turned out to be a pretty good QB too, in Kansas City. (On the other hand, Joe Germaine was a bust, finally ending up in the Arena League, reminding us that not every unknown/untried QB turns out to be a diamond in the rough.)

So the '99 Rams got lucky, pre-season critiques to the contrary. Maybe the Cardinals will get lucky, too.

WC

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Okay I think McCown sucks and even I admit he has a cannon of an arm. In fact, I think he throws the ball too hard on some of the short routes, leading to incompletions.

I remember the first time I saw him come after Jake in a pre-season game and I was like "holy crap, so THAT is what a real arm looks like in the NFL."

 

[MastersofCombat]

What is a strong arm? I threw the football in excess of 60yds. and was considered to have a strong arm. When I went to college there was a guy that threw the ball 85yds. and yet scouts said he would never play big time football because velocity of his out patterns were to slow.
When he would throw it too hard .....none of the recievers caught it. (like early years of elway). He threw hard enough that his recievers would and could catch it on a high pct.

 

[chickenhead]

I know it doesn't mean anything, but was Josh in that Quarterback Challenge thing they do for tv this year? I think I remember reading about when it was going to be on tv, but I didn't see it.

They're always fun to watch, at least just to compare arm strength, etc.

I hope so. Blake's performance last year was awful.

 

[Pariah]

The only position the Cardinals deserve to have better than a "C" rating (and not ranked among the league's worst) is at WR, and even that's debatable (because even that position is largely based on potential). I think we have a bunch of positions that could be really good (QB, LB, DL, OL) but that's all speculation at this point because they haven't done anything in a game, yet.

So, like others, I'll disagree with the author that McCown doesn't have a big arm--it's huge. But, can I disagree that we're at or close to the bottom of the QB pile? Not yet.

 

[chickenhead]

The ranking makes sense if it's based on proven performance. I suppose that a team shouldn't get a free pass in evaluations because of lack of data. All it does is make this year more interesting for me. Who knows - McCown could end up being one of the better bargains in the league before the season's out. Love his attitude.