The Arizona Cardinals played a whole lot better than expected this past Sunday in the nation's capital. Dedicated critics of the team (PFT's Mike Florio comes to mind) probably came away disappointed that head coach Jonathan Gannon's squad didn't simply lay an egg against the Washington Commanders. The overall performance by the Cards was quite the contrary, in fact.
A strong argument can be made that the Cards may have actually beat the Commanders rather handily if someone better than Josh Dobbs was under center. It was obvious that offensive weapons like James Conner, Marquise Brown, Trey McBride, and Rondale Moore had come to play. Imagine how much more effective those four contributors could've been if a more competent quarterback was feeding them the ball.
It's looking more and more like Arizona general manager Monti Ossenfort flat-out goofed. The club was likely well aware that starting signal-caller Kyler Murray was going to miss some time this coming fall. That being said, Ossenfort could've set the organization up for far better things in 2023 by acquiring a more viable stand-in for the 26-year-old Murray.
It turns out that the Cardinals were simply spinning their wheels by believing that veteran Colt McCoy could still perform at an acceptable level. Unfortunately, it became painfully obvious during the preseason that the 37-year-old no longer possessed an arm that could push the ball down the field. That revelation led to McCoy's release, a move that prompted Ossenfort to orchestrate the trade for the mediocre Dobbs.
Arizona Cardinals needed to find a better stand-in for Kyler Murray when they still had a chance to
Any member of the Cards roster who doesn't play QB deserves better than that. Everyone knows that you don't win in the National Football League without a capable individual leading the scoring attack. Thinking that McCoy, and now Dobbs, could keep the squad afloat until Murray got healthy has turned out to be a grave mistake.
There were some interesting passers looking for work back in March who Ossenfort could've made a play for. In fact, more than a few observers thought that Gardner Minshew would've made some sense for the franchise. After all, Gannon was familiar with the 27-year-old from the two years (2021-22) they spent together with the Philadelphia Eagles.
There's even a chance that Baker Mayfield, Murray's former college teammate, could've been convinced to come to the desert. Taylor Heinicke, a 29-year-old journeyman, would have also been an intriguing possibility. Others like Sam Darnold, Andy Dalton, and Carson Wentz (still available) deserved a look as well.
For the time being at least, Gannon has let it be known that Arizona is sticking with Dobbs. A large portion of the "Red Sea", including yours truly, believes that rookie Clayton Tune is a more viable option. That ongoing debate doesn't take away from the fact that the quarterback situation has been botched, and all we can do now is count the days until Murray returns.