Cardinals Know Which QB Will Start in Week 1

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said he knows who will start at quarterback against the Washington Commanders.

The Arizona Cardinals won't reveal what the plans are at quarterback ahead of Week 1's matchup against the Washington Commanders, at least publicly.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon was asked last week before refusing to name a starter in the sake of "competitive advantage" with both Clayton Tune and Josh Dobbs fighting for the spot. 

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and even Special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers wouldn't say who would be starting in place of Kyler Murray, though Rodgers jokingly confirmed it wouldn't be himself. 

There's reasons for both to start - Tune showed promise as a rookie fifth-round pick this preseason and is gifted athletically while Dobbs was acquired for a fifth-round pick himself and has knowledge of Petzing's system. 

It's anybody's guess as to who will trot on the field for the Cardinals on Sunday, though Gannon himself admitted on 98.7's Burns and Gambo the team already knows who will be the starter. 

"We know what we're doing, yeah," said Gannon, who doubled down when asked to confirm if they made a decision.

Gannon was also asked about the competitive advantage that comes along with not naming a starter ahead of time:

"Absolutely there is. I learned that from Coach [Nick] Sirianni, truthfully. When we were a new staff, there's always a little bit of cat and mouse in Week 1/Week 2, what are you gonna do? Do you show it in preseason? Are you really showing what you're gonna play? Things like that," said Gannon. 

"Everyone's a little different with that, but I do think that little bit of unknown can help you going into Week 1 whether that's who is playing or how you're gonna call a game, what you're gonna do, what you're gonna look like, game management, things like that. Because there's not a book on us right now. When there starts to become a book on you, people can study a little bit and try to think about different scenarios that can come up, so I do think it's an advantage."

In terms of preparing on the defensive side of the ball, Gannon - a former defensive coordinator himself - says it's difficult to game plan for two different guys. 

"Huge. From a defensive perspective it's hard to prepare for one quarterback, let alone two," said Gannon.

Washington head coach Ron Rivera is taking part in the gamesmanship himself, as the status of WR Terry McLaurin and DE Chase Young - both of whom suffered injuries during the preseason - has been kept fairly under wraps.

“Absolutely. I mean, it's all part of it. I mean, I know that the more doubt you can put on in your opponent's mind that the more they got to work and think about and prepare and it might take away from something that might be important or relevant," Rivera told reporters on Tuesday.

"So as far as we're concerned, you know, we'll do what we can and what we have to do and that's how we're going to report it, just based on that.”

Rivera says he would do the same if he was in Gannon's shoes, though Washington announced Sam Howell would initially be their starter halfway through the preseason. 

"Well, this is the 13th time I've gone through it and when you open up with a new group, there are a lot of unknowns. And again, like you said, they're exacerbating it by not necessarily telling you who their quarterback's gonna be and I wouldn't either," said Rivera.

"But I think the big thing more so than anything else is you just kind of have to assume. I mean, part of it is you have to look at the background of where these coaches are from, who they, who they've coached for in the past, then you try to draw some correlations to that. And then you go back, and you look at what they did at some of their previous stops, and you pay attention to those things. Some of it will lead you in the right direction and some of it, there's nothing there.”

It's all a guessing game for everybody on the outside, though an answer will eventually reveal itself when the Cardinals' offense takes the field for the first time.