Arizona Cardinals QB situation is getting increasingly ridiculous

The Arizona Cardinals have yet to determine who their Week 1 starting quarterback will be less than two weeks away from the start of the regular season. 

The Cardinals cut 36-year-old Coly McCoy, only to follow that up with a head-scratching trade for Cleveland Browns QB Josh Dobbs in exchange for a fifth-round pick. Not only was trading a fifth-rounder a reach but even the thought of inserting Dobbs as the starter while Kyler Murray's on the Physically Unable to Perform list the first four weeks doesn't make much sense factoring in Dobbs' poor body of work. 

Dobbs, 28, has bounced around since coming into the league in 2017 and is now with his sixth organization. Most of Dobbs' playing experience came last season for the Tennessee Titans with Ryan Tannehill injured late in the year. Dobbs was 0-2 as a starter with two touchdowns and two interceptions and completed just 58.8 percent of his passes. With a playoff spot and the AFC South on the line in Week 18, a Dobbs fumble resulted in a Jacksonville Jaguars go-ahead touchdown in the Titans 20–16 loss. Dobbs' poor play was a major reason why Tennessee didn't make it to the postseason in 2022. 

It's one thing to bring in another option to potentially be a starter, but there's nothing about Dobbs that indicates he's any better than fifth-round rookie Clayton Tune, who performed admirably this preseason. 

Tune had a tremendous collegiate career at Houston, including 4,074 passing yards and 40 touchdown passes last season. Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said that Tune's been "awesome."

"He’s got the mentality you want in your trigger guy,” Gannon said Thursday.

Not only does Tune have the right mentality, but he's had first-team reps in preseason games and during practice throughout camp. Dobbs will be trying to get acclimated to a playbook quickly and likely won't be able to digest all the schematics before the opener. Even so, Gannon stubbornly thinks all is well in Phoenix and he's in no rush to name a starter.

“I’ve been in some unique spots on some different teams that we didn’t know who the starter was going to be until the Friday before the game," Gannon said. "I feel comfortable with where we’re at."

Gannon's a first-year head coach and he shouldn't be comfortable about this situation. He could get off to an embarrassing start in Arizona if he doesn't make the right move in this QB battle. He'd be wise to roll with Tune, not the journeyman Dobbs who turned into a pumpkin with the playoffs on the line last year.