Cardinals’ Steve Keim, Bruce Arians talk strong-armed QBs

For years, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has espoused that a young quarterback learns most by playing the position rather than watching others do it.

As currently constructed, however, the Cardinals are an exception to that tenet, Arians said, because starting quarterback Carson Palmer takes Wednesdays off. That would give a rookie more practice time than he would receive under normal circumstances.

“If we are fortunate enough to get one, he’s going to have a very unique situation,” Arians said in a pre-draft news conference with General Manager Steve Keim on Tuesday. “He’s going to get first-team game reps with the starting offense on Wednesday. Well, that ain’t a normal rookie. So this is going to be very unique situation if the guy falls to us.”

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Over the past several months, Arians and Keim have spoken often of their desire to find the eventual successor to Palmer, who took about a month after last season to decide to return this year.

They didn’t back away from that on Tuesday.

“I’d like to keep my job for awhile,” Keim said. “I do have four small kids. If you don’t have a quarterback, you’re going nowhere.”

In Palmer, Keim and Arians believe they have a quarterback who can take the Cardinals to a championship. But they don’t want to wait until Palmer retires to start looking for a replacement. Since this could be Palmer’s last season, the Cardinals are looking now and are intrigued by a handful of quarterbacks in this draft.

MORE: Cardinals draft history – a look at the quarterbacks

Arians said there are a half dozen or so prospects in this draft with the physical skills to handle the job eventually. There are more quarterbacks with strong arms than there have been in four or five years, he said.

But that doesn’t mean the Cardinals’ need will match up with the availability come draft time, Keim said.

“The thing that’s hard for me is there are only so many people walking this earth who have the ability to not only make the throws from a physical standpoint, but their mind, to be able to play fast enough as well,” Keim said. “That’s why supply and demand is such an issue on this level.”

The 2018 class of quarterbacks is expected to be better than this one, but Keim said that won’t affect decisions this year.

“I just don’t think you can rely on that,” he said. “If you have one you fall in love with, you take him.”

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Keim insisted the Cardinals would not force the issue by drafting a quarterback above where the team had him rated.

“We’re going to take the best player available at 13, or at nine if we trade up or at 18 if we trade back,” he said. “We’re going to have a good player available. I know that. Coach and I have looked at enough guys and talked through a bunch of different scenarios. If we’re stuck at 13, there are 13 guys we like and I know can make us better.

“When you get into a situation where you panic and you force the pick, it will set us back from an organizational standpoint four or five years.”

Extra point

The team signed defensive tackle Olsen Pierre and guard/tackle John Wetzel to one-year contracts. Both players were exclusive rights free agents. Pierre (6-5, 293) spent all of last season on Arizona’s active roster but was inactive for all 16 games. Wetzel (6-7, 328) played in all 16 games and made eight starts for the Cardinals in 2016. He started at three different positions (five games at LT, two at RG, one at RT).