Former Cardinal QB Tutoring Top Draft Prospect

By Cuyler Meade

Skyrocketing quarterback prospect Carson Wentz out of North Dakota State was the man on the top of Sports Illustrated senior NFL writer Peter King’s list to get to know during the combine last week in Indianapolis.

King learned an awful lot, including that, according to Wentz at least, the quarterback has never received a letter grade lower than an A since the fourth grade.

But perhaps the most intriguing nugget that came out of King’s investigation was that a former Cardinals quarterback has been intimately involved in Wentz’s development.

King told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat that Ryan Lindley, the Arizona Cardinals’ 2012 sixth-round draft pick, and still a job-seeking free agent, has spent the last couple months training Wentz (and Cal quarterback Jared Goff) ahead of the draft.

King provided Lindley’s take on the biggest concern about Wentz: that having played at a Division II school will make the jump to the NFL that much harder.

“He goes ‘You know, I’ve looked at a lot of their games, I’ve watched a lot of their tape’,” King said on Monday, quoting Lindley. “He goes, ‘His level of competition really was about the same level as mine was in the Mountain West Conference.’ So, he said, ‘I don’t think that’s going to be the big deal.’”

Lindley started six games for the Bird Gang between 2012 and 2014, including Arizona’s first-round playoff loss to the Panthers in 2014. He most recently backed up Andrew Luck in Indianapolis.

King wrote more about Lindley’s relationship with Wentz in his column on MMQB.SI.com about Wentz on Monday.