The Cardinals will give rookie Logan Thomas his first NFL start at quarterback this weekend against the 49ers as they try to close their regular season with a win that could give them the NFC West title and that means he’s getting his first extended time with the first team at practice this week.
Things were a bit rocky out of the gate on Wednesday. Coach Bruce Arians termed Thomas’s outing “shaky” in the early portion of practice, something that Thomas agreed with while also agreeing with Arians that “it got better and better” as he took more reps. Thomas said that it is different learning the offense as the third-stringer he’s been for much of the season and actually executing it, something Arians indicated would be the rookie’s biggest challenge.
“He’s worked, fundamentally, extremely hard and gotten much better,” Arians said, via ESPN.com. “But putting those fundamentals to use in the offense, that’s two totally different things.”
The Cardinals remain hopeful that Drew Stanton will be healthy enough to start their first playoff game, which will be at the NFC South winner if they can’t win and get help from the Rams on Sunday. If Stanton can’t go, though, they’d feel a lot more comfortable with their situation if Thomas’s fundamental improvement translates to a competent performance in Week 17.
