Arizona Cardinals: Grading the quarterbacks, week 2

Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks didn’t play very well for second week in a row

As mentioned after every preseason game, for the Arizona Cardinals, this is just that, preseason. Let’s all remember that as we continue to evaluate the performance of the team overall.

Friday night’s 19-3 loss to the San Diego Chargers didn’t show us much improvement from the quarterbacks, particularly from the backups, from last week’s loss to the Oakland Raiders.

Carson Palmer

Like in week one, Carson Palmer started. He didn’t play long against the Chargers but did see several more snaps. The result was about the same though.

Palmer did not have any touchdown passes going 4-8 for just 37 yards. He was bailed out of a poor pass to Jaron Brown that went for 23 yards, his longest completion of his short evening.

Palmer did throw one touchdown – to the other team. On what appeared to be a quick screen to his left, Palmer’s throw was immediately interrupted by Chargers cornerback Brandon Flowers. he promptly took the ball to the house for a pick-six. I imagine that play is being tossed out of the playbook.

Again in a vanilla offense, we aren’t going to see much. Palmer’s limited action certainly left a lot to be desired but even though head coach Bruce Arians was “pissed” about the quarterback and team play Friday night, he did say he was not concerned about the offense.

Grade: C

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Drew Stanton

If there was a player I expected to have played better on Friday night, it would have been Stanton. Stanton was very poor against the Raiders last week. He continuously missed his targets and overthrew his receivers. Not much changed against the Chargers.

Stanton was once again picked off in his brief stint behind center Friday night. He went just 2-7 with the one pick.

He is not playing like a guy who is interested in competing for the starting position once Palmer retires. For now though, he remains the number two quarterback. Coaches and the front office though have to be scratching their heads wondering what the issue is?

Grade: F

Matt Barkley

Statistically speaking, Barkley didn’t have a horrible evening. He went 10-15 for 85 yards. He did lead the Cardinals on their only scoring drive of the game. However, there still seems to be something missing.

Some of Barkley’s throws that were incomplete were way off the mark. I was surprised by one of his deep passes that actually overthrew a receiver. His arm strength has always been in question but he missed the mark long in this case.

He didn’t do much to surpass Stanton just yet. A lot of his completion’s were short screen’s or mid-range passes. He competed though. He’s not quite there yet though.

Grade: C

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