Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon not naming starting QB for 'competitive advantage'

The Arizona Cardinals and head coach Jonathan Gannon are keeping things close to the vest regarding their starting quarterback for Week 1 of the regular season following the release of veteran Colt McCoy Monday.

Gannon cited keeping a “competitive advantage” in not naming a starter before Sept. 10 against the Washington Commanders.

“I’m not going to name a starter, because I think it’s a competitive advantage for us going to Washington,” Gannon said, via Arizona Sports. “But we’ll know who the starter is.”

The Cardinals released McCoy, 36, Monday — one day before teams around the NFL trim their rosters to 53 players. The move comes as a slight surprise, with Arizona already set to be without Kyler Murray for the start of the regular season. Murray, recovering from a torn ACL during Week 14 last season, won’t be activated off the physically unable to perform list before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline, meaning he will miss at least the first four games of the season.

“I don’t think it’s anything he didn’t show us,” Gannon said. “I think it was just looking at OTAs and then training camp and the games and the full body of work, we just feel like this is the best way to go.”

Cardinals turn to unproven QBs after release of Colt McCoy

Having started six games over the past two seasons in Arizona, McCoy took the majority of first-team quarterback reps during training camp and preseason. With McCoy no longer in the mix, either Clayton Tune or Joshua Dobbs will get the nod once Sept. 10 rolls around. Arizona selected Tune in the fifth-round of April’s NFL Draft out of Houston. Dobbs arrived via a trade this past Thursday with the Cleveland Browns. The former Tennessee standout has bounced around since entering the league in 2017, starting two games in 2022 with the Tennessee Titans.

Tune, meanwhile, suited up in 47 games across five seasons at Houston, putting up some prolific numbers in 2021 and ’22. He threw for 7,618 yards with 70 touchdowns and 20 interceptions on 67.8% passing. Tune ran the second-team offense for majority of training camp and preseason.

Gannon said he has a “pretty good plan in place” in evaluating Dobbs and Tune over the next two weeks.

“I think we got a pretty good plan in place, but I want to see them both go through the next two weeks,” Gannon said. “But I think that the plan that we have to evaluate that and to get that done and the team knowing the ‘why’ behind it. I think they’re comfortable with it. I feel good with where it’s at.”