Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton practiced Tuesday, though Blaine Gabbert also took some reps with the starters, Bruce Arians said via Darren Urban of the team website.
Arians said Stanton, who has a sprained knee, will have “to show he can stay out of harm’s way” to make his third start of the season.
The Cardinals aren’t ruling out Stanton, though.
“Drew is extremely tough,” General Manager Steve Keim said on Arizona Sports 98.7. “He’s the type of guy I would not bet against.”
The Cardinals signed Matt Barkley in case Stanton can’t go.
Stanton took over when Carson Palmer broke his left arm, and Stanton has a 7-4 record as the team’s starter the past four seasons.
But with the season likely already lost -- with a 4-5 record and David Johnson, Palmer, Mike Iupati and D.J. Humphries among the 11 players on injured reserve and the Cardinals unlikely to have a high enough pick to select a franchise quarterback -- should they play Gabbert just to see what they have in him? Gabbert, a former first-round pick, obviously didn’t get it done in Jacksonville or San Francisco with a 9-31 career record as a starter, but those weren’t good teams he played with.
The Cardinals stated when they selected Stanton to start that it was because he gave them “the best chance to win.”
“You can go back and forth with that question,” Keim said about whether to play Gabbert just to play Gabbert, adding that if you turned permanently to Gabbert and he struggled, “would you go back to Drew?”