Sports360AZ
The Cardinals’ preseason” player evaluation mode” has yielded both positive and negative results.
Positive in the fact that head coach Ken Whisenhunt and his coaching staff have seen some true gems come to the forefront (William Powell, Stewart Bradley, Reggie Walker, Justin Bethel, just to name a few).
The negatives are that neither of their top two quarterbacks have seized control of the crown, and their offensive line is in shambles and needs some serious soldering.
Whisenhunt said based on how Kevin Kolb and John Skelton performed in Tennessee on Thursday night, he’s not quite ready to make the announcement everyone’s been waiting on: who his starting quarterback will be for the regular season.
“I don’t really know right now,” Whisenhunt said. “[I] really haven’t put a lot of thought into that at this particular time.”
Whisenhunt said he’ll take time over the weekend to watch game tape and further assess things.
Kolb threw two ill-advised interceptions on Thursday night. Despite that, Kolb looked more of the part than Skelton did behind center.
Whisenhunt said Kolb bounced back fairly well from his performance against the Raiders, and all the hoopla surrounding Tommy Kelly’s comments about him during and after the game.
“I thought that he responded like a pro to us,” Whisenhunt said. “He made some plays and did a nice job on the two minute drive (to end the first half).”
The Cardinals had five turnovers total against the Titans. That’s a stat that will give a team an L most of the time, and that’s something Whisenhunt doesn’t want to see happen again.
“We can’t turn the football over,” Whisenhunt said. “That’s not going to cut it going forward.”
Whisenhunt said he addressed the turnover situation with his team today, and they’re well aware that they need to fix that crack in their armor moving forward.
The offensive line had its ups and downs on Thursday night, which didn’t help the offensive production at all, until the proper adjustments and substitutions were made.
Whisenhunt says “it’s a big boys game,” and that this is how you properly evaluate what you have on your team and who you need to have on your team moving forward.
“You have to put them in positions to see how they handle it,” Whisenhunt said. “That’s a process that will continue as we go forward.”
In his first start, tackle D.J. Young struggled to say the least. It just seemed like he was a step or two off the pace of the action at times.
Whisenhunt said he’s not disappointed in Young’s performance, considering the situation he was thrust into.
“He had his struggles last night, which isn’t uncommon with a young player,” Whisenhunt said. “But you’ve gotta support him and continue to work with him, because at times he shows he has talent.”
Beanie Wells got his first action of the preseason, and looked pretty sharp. Wells had six carries for 12 yards.
“It was a good first step,” Whisenhunt said. “I think that it was positive that he felt good today.”
Whisenhunt said Wells looked “rusty” against the Titans, which is to be expected when Wells hasn’t gotten that many reps up to this point in the offseason, as he was on the PUP list for a good majority of the time.
That’s something that Whisenhunt says will be addressed.
“He’ll get more reps in practice this week, he’ll play more in this game [Broncos],” Whisenhunt said. “Hopefully he’ll continue to improve and get better.”
