One of the perhaps big storylines for the Arizona Cardinals this offseason is a potential quarterback controversy between Kevin Kolb and John Skelton. Both played about half the season in 2011, but it was due to injury that had Kolb on the sideline. Now, head coach Ken Whisenhunt has made the starting job an open competition, vowing to start the player that performs better in OTAs, minicamp, training camp and the preseason.
However, by the way that some reacted, it was completely shocking that both Kolb and Skelton have been splitting reps with the first team offense. The way it worked the past couple of days is that they alternated days.
Gregg Rosenthal from nfl.com tweeted this:
Amazing the Cardinals are letting Skelton split first team snaps. Truly could be Week 1 starter.
— gregg rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) May 30, 2012
No one should think this is amazing. Ken Whisenhunt is very much a believer in creating competition. He wants one guy to pull ahead.
I honestly believe that the job is Kolb's to lose and that Skelton would have to clearly outperform Kolb to take the starting job, but that in part is because of the money they have committed to and already paid Kolb. While Skelton deserves a shot and is getting a shot, Kolb is probably going to get every opportunity to land the starting job.
Is splitting reps in OTAs amazing? Not at all. It is still very early in the offseason. Now is the time to truly split reps.
If they are still getting a true 50/50 split in training camp, then we will have a much bigger deal. Until then, let's not read too much into it.
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