Cardinals Ready for QB2 Battle as Preseason Arrives

The Arizona Cardinals are ready to see if Clayton Tune or Desmond Ridder will step up.

Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks Desmond Ridder (19) and Clayton Tune (15) during organized team activities in Tempe on May 20, 2024. / Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

ARIZONA -- Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray will be kept under wraps this preseason, paving the way for Clayton Tune and Desmond Ridder to see all snaps under center through the three-game slate.

Murray's spot is safe and secure - the right to be No. 2 in Arizona is anything but as Tune and Ridder look to gain an upper-hand beginning tonight.

"Yeah, a very healthy one. It's going to be interesting to see these next three games, the joint practices, practice today. Good competition between those two. They're both doing a good job," Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said on the backup competition.

Tune was drafted as a late-round pick out of Houston last season, didn't quite impress in the early stages of camp/2023's preseason and was essentially thrown to the wolves in his lone start against the Cleveland Browns - one week before Murray's return.

Ridder arrived this offseason via trade from the Atlanta Falcons after seeing ups and downs with his previous organization.

Both have something to prove, though there's a mutual respect between the two passers.

"It's gone great. Me and Clayton, we just like to push each other. ... We know if we push each other all as one we're all as a unit going to become better and then all individually become better," said Ridder this week on the battle.

"It's been great. Clayton's a great friend of mine, we're just trying to learn off each other."

Soon after, Tune offered:

"It's going well. I feel good about where I'm at. I feel like I've put in a good body of work - and there's still work to be done - as any case for as long as I'm playing, there's work to be done."

Tonight against New Orleans won't be the only opportunity the two passers are judged on - offensive coordinator Drew Petzing says the Cardinals will need to look at the entire preseason before deciding who to seat behind Murray.

"I think at the end of the day, that's playing the quarterback position: Operating the offense at a high level, taking care of the football and giving us the opportunity to score points. So it's going to be all those things," said Petzing.

"I think the big thing in a preseason game - there's some things that are exactly like an NFL regular season game. There's some things that aren't, and that's real. I think at the end of the day, it's going to be on decision making and operation, kind of the big two points that we're going to stick on. But it's going to take [us] a look at the whole picture over here the next couple of weeks to really make that final decision."

For some, tonight's a meaningless preseason game.

For Tune, Ridder and the Cardinals' coaching staff, it's the first step in an important evaluation process that could have ramifications down the stretch of the regular season.