Cards’ Rosen uncertain to play at Dallas
He twirled the football. He handed it off. He gripped it with his left hand. He tucked it under his right arm. At least twice, he gently tossed it into the air to himself.
Josh Rosen did just about everything with a football on Thursday except throw it, at least during the portion of Cardinals practice that was open to reporters.
Coach Steve Wilks didn’t meet with the media afterward and Rosen wasn’t available, either, so there was no official word from the team about Rosen’s availability for the Cardinals’ third preseason game Sunday in Dallas vs. the Cowboys.
On Wednesday, Wilks said the rookie quarterback was day-to-day after bruising the thumb on his right throwing hand when he accidentally hit it against a helmet during Monday’s practice.
It remained the team’s “intention,” Wilks said, to get Rosen some action at AT&T Stadium. How much action remains uncertain after a second straight day of seeing Rosen mostly inactive. If he is able to get a full day’s worth of practice in on Friday, then there’s probably a good chance Rosen plays on Sunday.
If he doesn’t play, it would be a waste of valuable reps for the first-round pick from UCLA.
“Every player in our system we want to see play as much as we can to get a good feel for where they’re at in our system,” offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said Thursday. “It’s not just a quarterback or the quarterbacks, it’s all of them, everyone.”
Sam Bradford is set to start his third straight – and likely final – preseason game on Sunday, and it is expected he will play most of the first half, depending on how things go in the game. He is 7 for 7 on his pass attempts – against the Saints, he completed each of his six passes to six different receivers.
“It speaks a lot to Mike’s offense,” Bradford said. “Just in the fact that the ball is going to get spread out all over the field. We’ve got different ways to get the ball to different positions. It’s not going to be narrowed down to one or two guys. It’s going to go everywhere. We’re going to force the defense to cover all five of our guys.”
With Rosen’s status up in the air, Mike Glennon could see his most extensive playing time yet after missing last week’s game in New Orleans because of a tender right forearm. Glennon said his arm feels fine and he’s ready to see some live game action after getting back on the practice field this week.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend, to go out there and play in the game,” he said. “It should be a good opportunity for the ‘ones’ to get out there for the last time and our ‘twos’ to get out there and play together again in a real game situation.”
As veterans, Bradford and Glennon don’t really need a ton more work before the Cardinals’ season opener Sept. 9 against the Redskins, even though Sunday night’s game is seen as a final dress rehearsal. It’s more important for the team’s pair of young quarterbacks, Rosen and fellow rookie Charles Kanoff, the undrafted free agent out of Princeton.
McCoy said both have played well in the preseason because they’ve taken advantage of learning from the two veterans. They’ve asked all the right questions, especially Rosen.
“From the very first day, he asked a lot of great questions,” McCoy said. “It’s his love for the game. He wants to be great.”
It runs even deeper than that, according to Glennon.
“Yeah, he’s done a great job. He really does ask really good questions,” he said. “It’s impressive the way his mind thinks and just his thirst for knowledge and wanting to know why. To give him just an answer isn’t always good enough for him. He wants to know why, which is a good thing.
“That’s how any young quarterback should be, even us veterans. You’re still looking for answers, even me. There’s times he’s asking a question and times where I’ll have an answer. Then sometimes he’ll ask a question and I’ll be like, ‘That’s a good question.’ He does take it from the classroom out onto the field, and the more experience he gets, the better everything will become even more natural for him.”
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday afternoon between 3-6 on 1580-AM The Fanatic with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday afternoon between 1-3 on Fox Sports 910AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.