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Are You A Rookie QB About To Debut? You'll Want To Play The Arizona Cardinals

On NFL.com, the latest offseason list comes from the Top 201 games in 2011. The Arizona Cardinals, in their Week 1 win over the Carolina, get credit for the win. Patrick Peterson returned the first of four punt returns for touchdowns, Cam Newton set a record and the Cards came away from a 28-21 win.

But the list itself didn't bother me. It was the fact shown in the middle of the page.

It has to do with rookie quarterbacks and debut passing yards.

According to the chart, the Arizona Cardinals were the opponent for three of the top five performances by a quarterback making his debut.

In 2011, Cam Newton passed for 422 yards in Week 1 . The Cards also are on the list for allowing Ed Ruppert and Mark Rypien to throw for 334 and 303 yards respectively. Those happened in the late 80s, so there is no need to be worried about it, but the fact that the Cardinals appear three times is disconcerting.

This very thing could happen in Week 1 in 2012 as the Seattle Seahawks could have Russell Wilson as their starting quarterback. Ryan Tannehill, if held out of the lineup for the first few games, could debut against the Cards.

While this has more to do with the forgettable past the Cardinals have as a history, it still sticks out.

If you have a QB you want to debut, you might want to pick the Cardinals to show him off. History shows that that guy could have a career day in career start number one.

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