Dealing Cards: Stanton and Gabbert step into new, yet familiar roles

TEMPE, Ariz. — Maybe Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton laughs because he doesn’t want to know.

“I know my career stats are probably horrible. I couldn’t even tell you what they are,” he said Tuesday, the first day back for players after a week-long trip to London that ended with a 33-0 loss to the Rams.

Stanton is now Arizona’s starting quarterback after Carson Palmer broke his arm in the Sunday defeat. For a player who, like Palmer, is in the fifth year under Bruce Arians’ leadership with the Cardinals, the path ahead includes few surprises.

Arizona is 3-4 on the season and without its starting quarterback and running back. That makes it an ideal time to be heading into a bye week. Stanton and the Cardinals have a chance to reload, then get in extra time planning for life without Palmer, who at minimum could be back in 4-6 weeks.

Stanton has done this before — and with a bit of success.

He’s 6-3 as a starter for the Cardinals and 8-5 for his NFL career.

“That’s the ultimate measure as a quarterback, especially as a backup. That’s why it was disappointing from the personal standpoint of what happened last week because I went out there and wasn’t able to get in a rhythm,” Stanton said after completing 5-of-14 passes for 62 yards and an interception.

“I know it got worn out and played out a couple years ago,” he said, “but that mantra of ‘next man up’ is what we’ve relied on for so long around here, so that’s how we’re going to operate.”

After the loss, Arians admitted a lack of practice time with the first unit put Stanton at a disadvantage. The Cardinals won’t have that excuse after the bye, and as the head coach put it, “nobody’s going to throw a pity party for us as far as who’s playing and who’s not.

“We have four practices to get ready to beat the Niners, and that’s all that matters right now,” Arians added. “And we did it with Drew last year.”

Against San Francisco on Nov. 5, Stanton expects that the Cardinals will attempt to re-find a running game that was lost in the rout in London. That should provide balance.

As for how much things change for him and the Arizona offense, all involved say it’ll be little.

“Pretty sure it’ll be hardly an adjustment at all,” said left tackle D.J. Humphries. “I feel like we have a guy back there we can win with.”

Stanton, like Palmer, will sit down with Arians two Saturdays down the road to script the beginning of the game how he’d like.

Pressed on whether the Cardinals’ offense changes with him running the show, he would only offer this much: “I’ve learned so much from Carson, sitting back and watching him operate. It won’t deviate too much from that because that’s what’s been successful.

“There are certain nuances that I’m just going to be myself. When those come about, I’m not going to try to fake it and do something out of character for myself. I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned in being in this business is you have to be authentic, you have to be yourself.”

GABBERT DOESN’T HEAR THE CLAMORING

From Day 1 of the season, Stanton has been the No. 2 quarterback.

But the offseason addition of Blaine Gabbert, the 10th overall pick in 2011, stood out. He fits the prototype of a starting quarterback, and Arians has not even ducked the fact that, yes, the Cardinals usually don’t carry three quarterbacks on a regular season roster.

With Palmer’s career winding down, fans might be quick to say that it should be Gabbert — not Stanton — who should get a look under center.

Gabbert doesn’t hear it.

“Drew’s going to do a great job, and I’m going to be there to support him, just like I was there to support him and Carson,” Gabbert said when asked if there was any thought about wanting to start.

“The thing that I learned early on, as a quarterback, you’re accountable to people in this locker room and people in this organization,” he added. “Everybody is going to have an opinion on how we play the game because we are the most-watched position in sports. Right or wrong, good or bad, most people think we can do our job, but most people can’t. We’re accountable to guys here.”

Gabbert, who has been a backup quarterback for portions of his seven-year career, has not appeared in a game for Arizona.

QUOTABLE

“Yeah, it’s becoming second nature. Kind of going through it throughout OTAs, training camp now, throughout all the installs of the regular season. This is my seventh (offense), so I’ve had a few to learn throughout my career. The more repetitions you get: Calling the plays in the huddle, picturing the plays in your brain when you walk to the line of scrimmage. That’s the biggest thing. Kind of word association, the concepts. The more reps you get calling the plays, and repping the plays in practice, the better.” — Gabbert on if he’s learned the verbiage and nuances of the offense in his first year with Arizona

RUN GAME WOES

Not helping Palmer before he was injured and Stanton after the starter went down was the Cardinals’ rushing attack that put up a season-worst 25 yards on the ground.

A lot of it had to do with Arizona throwing the football to play catch-up. Much of it also had to do with the offensive line struggling a week after helping running back Adrian Peterson to a breakout performance.

Those outside the quarterback room acknowledge they have issues to fix, regardless of Palmer’s injury.

“We still have to be balanced,” Peterson said. “Very disappointed in how we have performed as a group in the running game. We’ll take this time to reflect and make sure that’s not the case for the rest of the season.”

Humphries put it more bluntly.

“It was maximum effort, we just got our [expletive] whooped,” he said. “We just got whooped, that’s all there was to it.”

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