Arizona Cardinals: 5 position battles that intensified after Preseason Week 1 win

The Arizona Cardinals quarterback competition, at this point, looks like a done deal, with Colt McCoy seeing just one series and Clayton Tune getting most of his reps with the backups. Tune looked confident, and he bounced back from a mediocre first half, which showed us his approach wasn’t just a bunch of words and that he translated it to the playing field. 

Despite McCoy looking as though the job is his barring some type of meltdown in Weeks 2 and 3 of preseason, expect him to be the starting quarterback come Week 1. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t position battles that didn’t intensify following last night’s outing. Keep reading to discover the Top 5.

5 Arizona Cardinals position battles that just intensified 

1 - Second Cornerback

Antonio Hamilton, Kei’Trel Clark, and Christian Matthew all had their strong moments last night, and none of them managed to separate themselves as the unquestioned CB2. Not that we would have thought differently after one preseason game, but the trio played well enough that no one fell behind in the battle.

At this point, Hamilton remains as the CB2 on the depth chart, but Clark and Matthew made their respective cases. Clark especially had a great pass breakup when it looked as though a Denver receiver had him beaten, showing us that the 5’9, 181 pounder possesses outstanding recovery speed.

2 - Third Tight End

Trey McBride is the undisputed TE1 and when he returns, Zach Ertz will split reps with the second year pro. However, TE3 is anyone’s position to win, and Blake Whiteheart just entered the sweepstakes with an outstanding game. 

It looked as though Noah Togiai and Geoff Swaim would fight it out early, with Togiai being a camp revelation and Swaim bringing immense experience. But Whiteheart snagged five catches on seven targets for 42 yards and 8.4 yards per catch, making this at least a three man race.