Drew Stanton isn’t playing today, and that’s a good thing. I don’t want to watch him quarterback the Arizona Cardinals. Switching from Carson Palmer to Stanton will be a huge downgrade for Arizona’s offense.
Stanton is 33, and he’s had plenty of chances to play before. He simply doesn’t have the vision, timing and decision-making skills to be a viable starting quarterback. He’s iffy enough that I’m thinking we’ll see Blaine Gabbert starting for that team before the end of November. Gabbert has looked oddly decent in the preseason the last few years.
With Stanton, we’ve already had a chance to see how the movie ends. He’s started nine games for them in the last three years, and he’s averaged only 194 passing yards in those games, with 8 TDs. That’s with Bruce Arians as the head coach and the team running the same offense.
Give him credit (I guess) for at least going 6-3 as a starter, but he’s gone under 170 passing yards in most of his starts. Palmer, in contrast, averaged 285 passing yards in those seasons with 72 TD passes in 37 starts – almost 2 per week.
This is a huge downgrade for Arizona’s offense. It should be a bottom-10 group in the second half of the season. Anybody having a chance to peddle off Larry Fitzgerald for much of anything in return should jump at the chance.
| STANTON STARTING FOR ARIZONA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Pct | Yards | TD | Int |
| 2014 | at NYG | W 25-14 | 48% | 167 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | S.F. | W 23-14 | 55% | 244 | 2 | 0 |
| 2014 | at Den. | L 20-41 | 42% | 118 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | Det. | W 14-6 | 66% | 306 | 2 | 2 |
| 2014 | at Sea. | L 3-19 | 54% | 149 | 0 | 1 |
| 2014 | at Atl. | L 18-29 | 62% | 294 | 1 | 2 |
| 2014 | K.C. | W 17-14 | 50% | 239 | 1 | 0 |
| 2014 | at St.L. | W 12-6 | 60% | 109 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | at S.F. | W 33-21 | 39% | 124 | 2 | 0 |
—Ian Allan