The Arizona Cardinals get their top two quarterbacks back after devastating injuries to Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton wrecked an otherwise impressive season. The two will see action but are more concerned with making it to the regular season.
ODDS
Both coaches are more concerned with team chemistry and position battles and the line reflects a typical preseason game. Playing at home the Cardinals opened as 2.5-point chalk with the total at 36.
QUARTERBACK ROTATION
The Chiefs are expected to play their regulars for the first quarter, giving quarterback Alex Smith some live action reps with his new offensive weapons. Chase Daniel, who’s backed up Smith for the past two seasons, will get second team reps into the third quarter with Aaron Murray and Tyler Bray seeing action the rest of the way. KC has the same four quarterbacks they entered last preseason with and rotation is likely similar. Bray completed both of his attempts for 37 yards while Murray misfired on his only pass attempt in last year’s preseason opener.
Oh what might have been for the Cardinals last season if they had a quarterback. Carson Palmer, who missed the final seven games of 2014 with a torn ACL and took any hopes of winning in the postseason with him, will make his return and play one series with the rest of the offensive starters. Backup Drew Stanton, who also was lost after taking the starters role last season, will take over and finish the first quarter. Logan Thomas is expected to play most of the second and third quarters with undrafted rookie Phillip Sims debuting in the fourth. Thomas saw action in two regular season games last season completing 1 of 9 passes. Simms was recruited by Nick Saban at Alabama but transferred after losing the starting job to A.J. McCarron. He finished his collegiate career at Division II Winston-Salem State. Simms is a talented, undeveloped rookie who will benefit from playing under Bruce Arians and as the Cards learned last season, you can never have enough quarterbacks.
COACHES' MOTIVATION
Andy Reid has been around long enough to know exactly how to navigate preseason games. Get your starters a few reps, watch the position battles and don’t get hurt. Reid has just a .438 winning percentage in the preseason going 28-36 curing his career. His team’s turn it on during the regular year winning .588 percent of their games. Reid is 3-5 during the preseason in his two seasons with the Chiefs but 20-12 in games that count. The veteran coach has experienced just three losing seasons during his 17-year coaching career.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“You’ve got two guys that aren’t out there practicing and you’ve got packages for them and you can’t install them. And you can’t install them because it’s not fair to the other guys because that’s not their skill set. So you modify your practice and all your scripts to do something that’s beneficial for those guys.” – Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians on dealing with injuries to running backs Andre Ellington and David Johnson
POSITION BATTLE TO WATCH
Most in Cardinals camp assumed Dave Zastudil would be a lock as the team’s starting punter in 2015 after missing most of last year due to a groin injury, but he’s getting pushed by Drew Butler. Butler filled in for Zastudil last season, and while he only averaged 42.1 yards per punt during the regular season – 31st in the NFL – he dropped 34 kicks inside the 20, which tied for the most in the league. He had a poor playoff performance against Carolina, however. Zastudil averaged 45.7 yards per kick when he was healthy in 2013.
INJURIES
The Cardinals get their starting quarterback on the field but their top two running backs will see little if any action in Saturday’s preseason opener. Presumed starter Andre Ellington and rookie David Johnson have been shelved in practice with hamstring injuries. Neither has practiced in pads and Johnson has been ruled out. Ellington has progressed from his injury and may see action in the first series.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
Arizona gets its quarterbacks back and they become a significantly better football team when Carson Palmer is in there. The veteran will get one series, no matter how many plays it takes, to chisel off the rust from his recovery from a knee injury that ruined any hopes the team had of making noise in the postseason. Down two quarterbacks the Cards still made the playoffs thanks to a glorious run started by Palmer and continued by Drew Stanton. Stanton will also get some time and the Cards have more depth than the Chiefs at that position.
Arizona 23, Kansas City 18
The NFL lines for this Sunday game were first available at BookMaker sportsbook. The Cardinals were pegged as 2.5-point chalk while the total opened at 36. Minute-by-minute spreads, totals and props are available for this game using the live betting platform at BookMaker.
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