Arizona Cardinals coach Arians: After Winston and Mariota, 2015 QB class is ‘average at best’
Apr 24, 2015, 5:39 PM | Updated: 5:40 pm
QB or not QB, that is the question.
Sorry.
At any rate, with less than one week until the 2015 NFL Draft begins, some may be wondering if the Arizona Cardinals might take a quarterback.
Currently, the team has Carson Palmer (veteran starter), Drew Stanton (veteran backup), Logan Thomas (second-year project) and Chandler Harnish (recent signee). It’s not a bad group, sure, but there’s not exactly a surefire “quarterback of the future” in that group.
Might this draft class offer one?
According to Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, after Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, the consensus top-two QBs in the draft, the pickings are rather slim.
“I think average at best,” is how the coach described the group.
Of course, there may be little value in that statement. It wouldn’t be the first time the coach misled the media with regards to his intentions.
Last year, during the draft, Arians said he couldn’t see the Cardinals taking a quarterback in the later rounds.
Then, on day three, they used their fourth-round pick to snag Thomas out of Virginia Tech.
“You tell the truth and everybody thinks you’re lying,” Arians said when asked if this is a time for smokescreens.
Then again, perhaps Arians and the Cardinals are not really all that enamored with a group of quarterbacks that includes UCLA’s Brett Hundley, whom they reportedly worked out, Baylor’s Bryce Petty, Colorado State’s Garrett Grayson and Oregon State’s Sean Mannion, among others.
Any quarterback the team might consider selecting would have to be, in their opinion, better than the one they took last season. And though Thomas’ rookie season did not exactly set the world on fire — he was bypassed for Ryan Lindley when the team got desperate late in the season — it does not seem as though Arians is ready to give up on the 6-foot-6, 250-pounder with good mobility and a cannon for an arm.
With that in mind, the coach does not necessarily see a need to use one of the team’s picks on a quarterback.
“Not as much as last year,” he said. “Obviously the top two guys are there. Do I think there’s anyone else that we would take to press Logan Thomas? I don’t think we would in this draft.
“That’s not saying we won’t, but I like where he’s at and the progress he’s making.”
