Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt says that he’ll pick either Kevin Kolb or John Skelton as his starting quarterback based entirely on who looks better between now and September, and that he’s heading into the competition with no favorite in place.
Whisenhunt told Jim Rome on Rome that he doesn’t know who his starting quarterback will be, and he’s as eager as anyone to see one of his quarterbacks establish himself as the starter.
“That’s the question that’s going to be answered through the workouts this spring and in training camp this summer,” Whisenhunt said. “They’ve both been working hard at it. It’s been good to get out on the field and actually work on techniques and fundamentals with these guys. At times last year they both showed they can do good things. But consistency at that position is something we’ve got to improve on. So hopefully the competition between both of them will sharpen up one of them enough that he’ll be a good starter for us.”
“I think the knee-jerk reaction would be to say that it is Kevin’s job to lose,” Whisenhunt said. “But then you have to look at what John Skelton did last year in winning those games when he was in there. So I think you have to give John a lot of credit for winning those games. I certainly have a lot of respect for Kevin and what he’s done in this league and we made the commitment to bring him in to our football team. So it’s going to start out as even as it possibly can, and we’re going to let the best player take it from there."
In seven starts and one near-start, Skelton averaged 239 yards, 1.8 TDs and 1.4 INTs, which translates to QB16 numbers. More importantly (for the Cardinals), he went 6-2 in those eight games. Meanwhile, in eight full games (going 2-6) Kolb averaged 244 yards, 1.0 TDs and 1.1 INTs, which equate to QB18 numbers. Fantasy-wise, the starting QB for the Cardinals will likely put up solid QB2 numbers, but whoever wins the job will be on a short leash, and that makes it a situation to avoid.
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