Quarterback Quandary Back Again for the Cardinals

When the Arizona Cardinals brought in Kevin Kolb the hope was that he would take over where Kurt Warner left off. He looked to be more than capable during his spot starts in Philadelphia, but had been a flop since joining the Cardinals. John Skelton played better during the '11 season, but like Kolb, looked pretty bad during the '12 preseason.

Ultimately head coach Ken Whisenhunt went with Skelton as the starter for Game One possibly signaling the end of Kolb's time in the Arizona desert. Then came the fourth quarter of the game against the Seattle Seahawks, and the potential creation of the season's first quarterback controversy.

Kolb looked great on what ended up being the game winning drive throwing for 66 yards and a touchdown while completing six of eight passes. He was everything that the team had wanted and more; cool, calm, efficient, and most of all effective. With the initial prognosis for Skelton being a high ankle sprain it appeared as if he would get a mini-audition of a few games to prove that his lone drive was not a fluke.

That may not be the case anymore. On Monday the team announced that the damage to Skelton's ankle was not as bad as it was initially believed to be. Instead of a high ankle sprain--that would keep him out of action for at least a month if not more--it's a low ankle sprain.

How exactly that is going to effect the team and Skelton is not clear at this time. When Whisenhunt made the announcement he did not allude to whether Skelton would be available this week or when in the future if he didn't play this coming week against the Patriots.

It would not be a bad idea to give him at least a week to rest. Arizona does not have the best of offensive line. Whomever does line up at QB for the Cardinals will need to be able to scramble against the Patriots and Eagles (in Week Three) if the team is going to have any chance of surviving the game let alone winning it.

That gives Whisenhunt the perfect excuse to see if Kolb is legit or if the game winning drive Sunday was just an anomaly. While winning is the most important thing the front office probably would not mind if the guy that is making a small boat load of cash was starting.

Should Kolb excel or fail the decision would not be hard. On the other hand if he is simply average in any starts he may (or may not) receive, Whisenhunt will be right back in the same position he was in during the preseason.