Despite Palmer flirting with retirement, the Cardinals didn’t do much to find his successor. They didn’t get anyone in the draft, though they signed undrafted free agent Trevor Knight. Their only other free agent signee was Blaine Gabbert, who put up a paltry 68.4 QB rating last season and was benched for Colin Kaepernick.
Drew Stanton has been Palmer’s backup for the past four years and is still on the roster. Stanton has filled in for an injured Palmer before but hasn’t done much to impress. He completed just 51.8 percent of his passes and threw nine touchdowns to 10 interceptions in those nine games.
So if Palmer gets hurt again, the options are two quarterbacks with a combined starting record of 17-36 and a rookie who wasn’t drafted. Yikes.
If the Cardinals have any hope of reaching the mountaintop this season, they need to commit to protecting Palmer and taking pressure off him with the running game.
A third-round pick out of Northern Iowa in 2015, Johnson spent his first season splitting time with veteran back Chris Johnson. The rookie showed tremendous potential in limited action, so in 2016, Arians took off the leash and rode Johnson as a full-time back.
The division is on the rise, but Luck remains its best quarterback. Although he could be challenged by Marcus Mariota in Tennessee and, eventually, Deshaun Watson in Houston. Blake Bortles in Jacksonville … probably not so much.
The pressure is on Luck to ascend to the throne as king of NFL quarterbacks. It Cheap Bike Jerseys will require Super Bowl victories to do that.
So Luck has a lot of work to do to match the achievements of the quarterbacks considered the best of all time. He has the talent and work ethic to get there, but he needs to stay healthy Cheap Braves Jerseys and get the excellent supporting cast needed … and then be at his best to elevate his team in the biggest games.