When the 1PM Friday deadline passed for the Arizona Cardinals to be able to release QB Kevin Kolb to avoid paying him a $7 million roster bonus, it meant basically that Peyton Manning was out of the picture for the Arizona Cardinals. For most Cardinals fans, it was devastating news as there was a buzz in town about the prospects of having Manning on the team, making the Cardinals almost instantly a viable contender.
However, what many fail to realize is that while Manning was lost, nothing was really lost.
Arizona was already content with the their quarterback situation. They just pursued Manning because it was a special case. It isn't every day or even every season when an established, elite QB can be acquired. Sure there were health concerns, but the team simply had to try and sign him.
Now they are "left" with Kevin Kolb and John Skelton. The team believes in Kolb and that healing and a full offseason will do the trick to get him looking like a viable NFL starting QB. Skelton, despite erratic play statistically, won a lot of games and sometimes looked elite and other times looked like he doesn't being in the league.
However, the Cardinals were very content with this situation. It isn't a great loss, just back to where they were.
In minicamp, OTAs and training camp, Kolb and Skelton will compete to see who will end up as the starting quarterback when games actually mean something.
It will be a different story, though, if Manning ends up with the San Francisco 49ers. That would be a veritable kick in the crotch.
Cardinals fans, let us not mourn the loss of something the team could have had. It was only ever a possibility and before the whole Manning drama came out, fans were eating up the Kolb/Skelton debate. Now we can get back to comparing and debating that -- not Manning.
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