Preseason priorities
3 things to watch for as the Cardinals take on the Bears
Normally, one wouldn’t assume that a starting quarterback with 15 years of NFL experience would lean on his backup more than anyone else, including his head coach, who just happened to recently release a book titled “The Quarterback Whisperer.”
Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, however, is different. He isn’t too jaded, stubborn or California cool to go straight to second-stringer Drew Stanton when he sees something that his natural instincts and experience can’t immediately solve.
And he very well likely will do it again Saturday night when the Cardinals meet the Chicago Bears at University of Phoenix Stadium in their third of five preseason games.
Palmer will start and be on the field for a good portion of the first quarter. Stanton will take over and likely finish the rest of the first half like he did a week ago, when he completed 11 of 15
passes for 112 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
“I don’t trust easily and he’s earned it,” Palmer said of Stanton. “This is going on five years now. There’s times you play with somebody and it’s in one ear and out the other because you don’t quite have that history together.
“But I know if he has something to say on the sideline, in a game whatever it may be or on a Wednesday as we’re preparing, there’s a reason for it and it’s something I need to really look at and think about.”
It’s called trust. And respect. And you’ll never guess how Stanton earned it from Palmer, the former No. 1 overall pick of the 2003 NFL draft. It happened, Stanton recalled, when he and Palmer often met for dinner during their first season together in Arizona and Palmer “started letting me pick the wine out.”
Palmer and Stanton share an affinity for fine wine. They collect it, share it and read up on everything involving the latest vineyards and coolest vintages. “It just opened up this dialogue for us,” Stanton said, adding, “It’s a fun thing that we both, I think, really enjoy. I know I do from my standpoint.”
“In wine, there is truth,” wrote the Roman author, naturalist and philosopher Pliny the Elder. In wine, there also is an unbreakable bond between the Cardinals’ top two quarterbacks, who share much more than a taste of the good old grape.
Palmer, 37, said Stanton, 33, is his equal and a mentor. How often do you hear that from a veteran NFL quarterback? Ask Palmer how his understudy has helped him and you’ll hear this:
“How doesn’t he help me? Just in every way, almost like a psychologist sometimes. When you’re going through a certain play, a certain protection or whatever it may be, he’s a sounding board almost. He’s extremely, extremely bright aside from football but he sees the game just brilliantly.
“I doubt he would ever do it, but he could be a phenomenal coach.”
One of the primary elements, Palmer said, is Stanton's ability to condense a week’s worth of film study into one or two concise paragraphs for review.
“It’s not overkill, which makes it really easy,” Palmer said. “He just has a great way of delivering information, which I think is what great coaches and teachers do - so he helps me in every facet. … I’m at the point now where everything he says never wastes my time with something during a timeout, during the game.
“If he says something, there’s a reason behind it and that’s developed over time and repetition and games and practices and offseasons and all those things.”
Now you know why coach Bruce Arians has also put so much trust in Stanton, whom he first coached as the backup to rookie Andrew Luck with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. That was a special season for a lot of reasons, but it was then when Arians discovered Stanton's intangibles.
“That room has to be solid and everybody that speaks in the room has to speak the same language, understand the language, know their role,” Arians said. “It only takes one guy to upset that room. But the quarterback, in my 20-something, 30 years of working with them, depends on that guy (the backup) more than the coach. Especially if he doesn’t understand something; he’ll ask that guy.
“(Stanton) knows the offense inside and out.”
As much as he’d love to be a starter again – he is 8-5 in his career – Stanton knows his role is serving as the backup. This is the last year of his contract so things could change, but he’s committed to being Palmer's sounding board and right-hand man.
“I know how vital it is to have somebody you can lean on, than you can go to, that can be an extension of you,” Stanton said. “That’s the value that I try to bring with that.
“… When it’s all said and done, being able to look back at my career, it’s something I’m going to be very proud of.”