No disrespect, but who's #2 would you rather have...other than Barkley (which is one of our own)?
The only #2's I can remember with the Cards that I liked were Lomax - behind Hart - and Lienart behind Warner. Stanton behind Palmer hasn't worked out so badly.
I would estimate about a third of the leagues current #2's would be an upgrade over Stanton. I would take any of these #2's right now over Stanton:
Garapollo
Prescott
Glennon
Kap (yea I said it)
McCarron
Nassib
Weeden
McCown (yes, I would bring back McCown at #2)
If you mean what Card's #2, that isn't a valid argument to me. In recent (AZ Cards) history the Cards haven't even had a quality starting QB outside of Warner and Palmer. Part of the reason for success we've had in recent history was having a quality QB that could run an offense. Of course a quality coach, GM and all that has brought for both sides of the ball in the BA era is huge, but if you have second rate QB who is concerned with the #2. The reason everyone is concerned with our #2 is because
we have a lot to lose... we have a QB who is effective more often than not but an amazing team as a whole. If you have an ineffective QB (can't move the ball, turns the ball over) it makes it extremely difficult to win games and near impossible to win in the post season. We have a team that can go very far and it doesn't rely on a QB putting up 4,500+ yds. I believe that with our D and run game we could still go far with consistent but average QB play (game manager), which Stanton won't deliver.
We have a lot to lose if Palmer is lost since we don't have a quality backup. Palmer is getting older and Palmer getting injured is a real possibility. Remember, Palmer is good but no Brady or Rodgers.
The other reason a #2 is so important is the same reason... Palmer is getting older, he has one more year left on his contract, so quite possibly just one more season left with us, but an injury can end that any time. Stanton is not the future, he will never be our #1.
If we're going to use the excuse to keep Stanton around that our playbook is so hard and takes soooo long to master, then that same logic should dictate we should already have our future #1 sitting in the #2 slot and being groomed to learn the system.
That list above are not all people I believe could be our future, I'm just saying I think all of them are better than Stanton. What I would have liked to see was the Cards to draft a prospect and try to build them up. I was hoping for Cardale Jones to get picked up by us since I thought he was the best QB for the value as a prospect pick in the 4th or 5th round. They didn't, and right now Barkley is the only option we really have available at the moment to try progress that position. Trust me, I'm surprised I'm even lobbying for Barkley because I thought it was another pointless QB move on their part. But contrasting Stanton's performance again I'm ready to put some development into almost anyone else. I'm not saying cut Stanton, just either let someone compete for the position and/or bring in someone who is actually going to be developed in earnest to see if they can be our future #1.
He showed progress, so let's try in earnest to see what's what. Each preseason we see flashes of potential from new QBs and utter crap from Stanton and instead of looking to upgrade the guy that is playing terrible we cut loose the guy that outplayed him. Have you ever seen Stanton outplay the lower QBs in the last couple preseasons... no. We had this same debate last preseason and thank goodness we didn't need Stanton or I guarantee you would be singing a different tune. We barely squeaked by on many of those wins with CP.
If we keep going down the road of bringing in camp arms with no real intention of ever trying improve beyond Stanton we never will. All that will happen is that we keep Stanton and if we do bring in someone who plays well they likely won't clear waivers and we will never get a chance to develop them. If we are lucky they go on PS but never get meaningful reps. Either way odds are we will have a perpetual Lindley for our #3 until Stanton becomes our #1 because we didn't work towards upgrading that deficit and our Lindley-like #3 becomes our #2.
Since they are never going to look to replace Stanton the only way we will ever get our next starter is for the Cards to carry 3 QBs on active roster, draft an unknown quantity and start them, or trade for a retread and hope that we get lucky for a third time and they get have a resurgence in the valley. The last option barely ever works, so having it work again seems a lot less likely than having the luxury to develop prospects over the next two years while we do have a starter.
Oh well, fingers cross again Palmer doesn't get hurt. Why even bother carrying two QBs on the roster if we're going to use the premise that the season is always lost anyways when a #1 QB is lost and we're not using the #2 spot to develop our future #1.
Scud couldn't hold Stanton's jock, bro.
