The Cardinals are plugging in Drew Stanton on Thursday night, and I can’t say I’m optimistic. Carson Palmer has had his problems this year with interceptions and missed opportunities, but he looks a whole lot better than Stanton.
Stanton has spent most of his nine years in the league as a backup. He’s completed 16 of 40 passes the last two years, with no touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Never in his career has he completed more than 58 percent of his passes in a season.
The one thing he’s had a little of a knack for, it seems, has been catching defenses off guard with some longer throws. This might benefit John Brown and Michael Floyd.
When Stanton took over for half of the 2014 season, he was able to go 5-3 as a starter, but he didn’t actually play all that well. Completing under 55 percent of his passes, he averaged only 203 yards per game, with 6 TDs and 5 interceptions.
The Cardinals averaged 93 more passing yards that year in their other eight games, with 9 more touchdown passes. (And they went 6-0 in the games Palmer started.)
STANTON AS A STARTER IN 2014 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opp. | Score | Pct | Yards | TD | Int |
@NYG | W 25-14 | 48% | 167 | 0 | 0 |
S.F. | W 23-14 | 55% | 244 | 2 | 0 |
@Den. | L 20-41 | 42% | 118 | 0 | 0 |
Det. | W 14-6 | 66% | 306 | 2 | 2 |
@Sea. | L 3-19 | 54% | 149 | 0 | 1 |
@Atl. | L 18-29 | 62% | 294 | 1 | 2 |
K.C. | W 17-14 | 50% | 239 | 1 | 0 |
@St.L. | W 12-6 | 60% | 109 | 0 | 0 |
—Ian Allan