Birds make quarterback shuffle as cutdown day looms
Colt McCoy was released on Monday and the Arizona Cardinals’ franchise quarterback, Kyler Murray, will reportedly begin the season on the physically unable to perform list.
The roster moves would set up another big decision for first-year head coach Jonathan Gannon: whether to ride with rookie Clayton Tune or journeyman Josh Dobbs as QB1 in Arizona.
The Cardinals traded a fifth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for Dobbs and a seventh-round pick last week. Arizona needs help at the position until Murray clears rehab from ACL surgery on his right knee.
The former No. 1 overall pick tore the ACL on Dec. 12 last season. By being placed on the PUP list, Murray would be required by NFL rule to miss at least the first four games of the 2023 season.
Tune, a fifth-round pick out of Houston, has impressed Gannon in extended playing time in the preseason.
“I feel like I have learned a lot, grown a lot,” he said. “I just continue to learn each day that goes by.”
Dobbs, a fourth-round pick of the Steelers in 2017, made the only two starts of his career late last season with the Tennessee Titans.
McCoy spent the past three seasons with the Cardinals and entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Browns in 2010 after starring at Texas. He had stints with San Francisco, Washington and the New York Giants.
McCoy was released Monday along with safety Sean Chandler and cornerback Nate Hairston as part of Arizona’s roster reduction to reach the 53-man limit allowed for the regular season.
