Once veteran tackle Marcus Gilbert elected to opt out of the 2020 season because of the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, the starting right tackle position became a position battle worth paying attention to for the Arizona Cardinals. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury is close to making a decision, although it sounds like he might already know who will be the starter.
“We’re getting close,” he told reporters on Wednesday after practice. “We want to wrap up this week. Once we get into mock game week, we should solidify where we’re at.”
This week is the last regular camp week. Next week, they will treat it like a game week without actually having a game.
It would appear that veteran Kelvin Beachum is the favorite to start.
“We’ve been really pleased with what Beachum has done,” Kingsbury said.
They selected Josh Jones in the third round of the draft, but even going back to the night he was drafted, it always sounded like the Cardinals planned on having him developing a year. That said, Kingsbury is happy with him.
“We obviously drafted Josh for a reason and he’s made some steps this camp,” he said.
As for Justin Murray, who started 12 games in 2019 after Gilbert was lost for the season with a torn ACL, Kingsbury speaks of him highly, although like a reserve.
“Justin is that guy who gives us a high comfort level that no matter what whether he’ playing inside or tackle he can play at a high level after watching what he did last year those starts that he was in there,” Kingsbury explained.
It sounds a lot like how he spoke of Mason Cole a year ago, who was a reserve, and how former head coach Bruce Arians would speak of Earl Watford, who was mostly a backup when he was in Arizona.
Beachum has been a starter almost his entire career, although almost exclusively at left tackle. However, he has played a lot of football and appears to be the man the Cardinals will rely on at right tackle, at least to start the season.
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