Arizona Cardinals: Arrival of Barkley speaks volumes

The Arizona Cardinals traded for the third-year quarterback on Friday

All training camp and preseason it was ingrained into our minds that Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks Phillip Sims and Logan Thomas were fighting for the third quarterback spot on the final 53-man roster. The towards the end of camp rumors started swirling that maybe neither were playing for a spot on the active roster.

Last week it was suggested that the winner of the quarterback competition would be the guy that gets a practice squad spot, nothing more, nothing less. Something must have changed that thought process on Thursday night. Or maybe the thought process changed awhile ago and we just find out the result of that on Friday with the trade for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Matt Barkley?

So what did happen with Sims and Thomas to the point the Cardinals now employ a guy that couldn’t beat out Tim Tebow for the third spot in Philly? I think we got our final answer on the subject on Thursday night against the Denver Broncos.

Up until Thursday night there was this strange love affair by some Cardinals fans for Sims. He had played in all of three games, only two of them with any extensive playing time, yet we ready to anoint him the next Kurt Warner. Don’t get me wrong, I liked some of the things I saw from Sims, who was cut by the way on Friday, but he wasn’t the next coming.

Then you have second-year quarterback Logan Thomas. Thomas was the guy who lost a starting gig in week 17 last season after one practice. He was beaten out by Ryan Lindley. We saw how bad Lindley was, right? Then as recently as mini-camp in June, head coach Bruce Arians mentioned how he had no idea what Thomas was doing out there at times. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Again, this was just back in June, of this year.

Thomas did some nice things in the preseason. I get why some fell deeper in love with him as well but honestly he wasn’t all that great either. Sure, he threw a nice touchdown bomb to receiver J.J. Nelson but he still looked average at best. The stat sheet said he went 9-10. Great. He was playing against third and fourth stringers. Sims was playing second and third stringers. Sims struggled a bit more on Thursday than Thomas did.

In the end though, it turned out like I expected. Neither quarterback making the final 53, although Thomas’s release is not official yet. We will have to wait until later today for the word on his status. Sims or Thomas will likely end up on the practice squad though despite the arrival of Barkley.

That’s because Barkley’s arrival is conditional on his performance over the first six weeks of the season. If he is on the roster after six weeks, the Cardinals will give up their 7th-round draft pick to the Eagles in 2016. Not a huge risk. That transaction was less risky for the Cardinals than just going with Sims or Thomas on the 53-man roster in the eyes of the general manager Steve Keim or Arians. To me, that says a lot.

Barkley has shown his lack of arm strength and has been shaky at best this preseason. Tim Tebow, who no one in the NFL would give a job until Eagles coach Chip Kelly gave him a shot, played well enough to at least beat Barkley out. Now we don’t know if Tebow won a spot on their 53-man roster yet or not but we know Barkley didn’t. When that situation is more intriguing than your Sims or Thomas situation, you know there is a lack of trust and confidence big time with those two.

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