Arizona Cardinals plan to use their large collection of quarterbacks

Bruce Arians loves quarterbacks, although it’s often hard to detect given the colorful way he points out their mistakes. Arians and the Cardinals have a decent-sized collection of signal callers on display right now.

The addition of Blaine Gabbert this week gives them five on the roster, and a sixth, undrafted rookie Antonio Pipkin from Tiffin (Ohio) University, is participating in this weekend’s rookie camp on a tryout basis.

It sounds as if the Cardinals plan to keep at least five quarterbacks through most of the summer. Full offseason practices begin next week, and the team has an extra week of training camp this year because it’s playing in the Hall of Fame Game.

Carson Palmer, the starter, probably won’t throw much until next month in the final week of organized team activities, Arians said.

“He tosses some soft ones around in the blitz drills, but he doesn’t need to be out there right now,” Arians said.

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So Drew Stanton, Zac Dysert and rookie free agent Trevor Knight will run the offense for most of the summer. Pipkin is hoping to convince the Cardinals he’s worth keeping beyond this weekend’s rookie camp.

“I was really impressed with Trevor and Antonio today,” Arians said on Friday after the first practice by rookies. “They had good velocity on the ball and accuracy.”

In Pipkin’s case, there was a little too much velocity. He showed off his arm strength by throwing deep several times, and by drilling the ball to receivers at medium depth.

“He’s got to slow that thing down a little bit,” Arians said. “Again, another good athlete. His velocity hurts his accuracy some. He’s got to take a little bit off of it. He can’t rely on the fastball all of the time.”

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Pipkin holds almost every passing record at Tiffin, and is 13^th all time in career total offense in Division II history.

After going undrafted, Pipkin had offers to sign with other teams, but opted to come to Arizona on a tryout basis.

Asked for his thoughts about Gabbert’s signing, Pipkin replied, “I can’t worry about that.”

Knight, who played at Oklahoma and Texas A&M, took the same approach.

“If you’re always looking over your shoulder and worrying about a QB battle, you’re not going to play as well as you want to,” Knight said. “You’ve got to worry about yourself. As far as yourself and your own future, you have to put your head down and get to work.”

Pipkin is one of 29 players participating in this weekend’s camp on a tryout basis.

He and the others need to make strong impressions to stay in Arizona past Sunday, the last day of rookie camp.

Retaining information

By the end of camp on Sunday, the majority of the Cardinals’ offensive and defensive schemes will have been introduced to the rookies. Part of the reason for the avalanche of information is to determine who is studying at night and how much information players can retain.

“When you’re being asked to play a sport, it’s to be expected. This is your job,” said linebacker Haason Reddick, the team’s first-round draft pick. “You get to weed out who is just out and who is trying seriously to make a living. You definitely want to see who can learn and definitely to see who is taking it seriously and who is not.”

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A unique situation

Linebacker Ryan Watson is listed as a tryout player for the Cardinals but he has no chance of making the roster this fall. That’s because Watson played at Air Force and, last month, the Department of Defense announced that athletes from service academies must serve their required two years of active duty before playing professional sports.

Before that change, athletes could request to be placed on reserve.

Asked for his opinion of the policy change, Arians replied: “I think it’s dumb.”

Watson appears to be taking it in stride.

“It’s not the easy road,” he said. “I went to the Air Force Academy so I’m not used to easy in the first place.”

After this summer, Watson will report to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and work in acquisitions.

“I’ll get settled in and do my job for two years,” he said.

Pre-emptive strike

At the beginning of his post-practice news conference, Arians said he would not answer questions about anyone not on the roster. So he was not asked about linebacker Daryl Washington being released on Thursday.