McCoy will be an analyst in Saturday’s USFL matchup between the Houston Gamblers and Memphis Showboats, airing on USA.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy is trying his hand at television. According to AZCentral Sports’ Jose Romero, McCoy will make his debut as a game analyst in Saturday’s USFL game between the Houston Gamblers and Memphis Showboats.
He has never broadcast a game prior to this.
It would appear McCoy is preparing for his post-football career. He will be 37 years old before this coming season begins and he is entering his 14th NFL season.
He is expected to begin this season as the Cardinals’ starting quarterback, as Kyler Murray is expected to miss the start of the season while he recovers from a torn ACL he suffered last December.
McCoy should be good for television. He is well spoken and extremely knowledgable about football.
So if Cardinals fans want to catch McCoy in his broadcasting debut, you can catch the Gamblers-Showboats game on USA or streaming on Peacock on Saturday starting at 11:30 a.m. Arizona time.
EPSN ranks Young as the No. 3 and McCoy as the No. 12 quarterbacks in the top 75.
ESPN’s Bill Connelly conducted a list of the 75 best college football quarterbacks of the 2000s. College football fans have been treated to a few special talents this century. Two of the top names are former Longhorns.
Texas enjoyed a run of dominance from 2003-2009, led by the elite quarterback play of Vince Young and Colt McCoy. Young and McCoy were superstars for the Longhorns, helping Texas reach the heights of a national championship, conference titles and a handful of BCS bowl victories.
Young dazzled as a dual-threat quarterback who put it all together for a historic 2005 season. He lead Texas to a perfect 13-0 campaign, including a memorable performance against USC in the national title game.
McCoy had huge shoes to fill following Young’s career and he delivered in a major way. He guided Texas to a record 45 wins in his four-year career, finishing just shy of a national title in 2009.
EPSN ranks Young as the No. 3 and McCoy as the No. 12 quarterbacks in the top 75.
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So apparently Colt McCoy’s neck injury might cause him to not be ready for the regular season.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray likely will not be ready to start the season as he is recovering from a torn ACL he had surgically repaired in January.
His backup, Colt McCoy, would be limited in the offseason program, team owner Michael Bidwill said earlier in the offseason, although what injury it was and the severity was not mentioned.
Apparently, his availability to start the season is in question, according to Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders, writing for ESPN.
In writing about the biggest roster holes each team has after the draft, he mentions healthy quarterbacks for the Cardinals, noting, “backup Colt McCoy might not be ready for the start of the season because of a neck injury.”
We previously did not know exactly what the injury was, although we believed it was his neck. That is the injury that was listed in Week 18 and kept him out of the lineup for the finale last season.
If McCoy can’t start the season able to start, that puts the Cardinals in a tough situation.
It was made to believe that his undisclosed injury was minor.
If it is his neck and the start of the season is in doubt for him, that is problematic.
It would mean that Arizona would start the season with David Bloughm., Jeff Driskel or rookie fifth-round pick Clayton Tune under center.
FedEx Field should be rocking as the Commanders hope some of the team’s former fans return to cheer on Washington again.
So, while local interest should be at an all-time high, this matchup is not one of the more exciting Week 1 matchups. It isn’t a marquee quarterback matchup, with Sam Howell expected to make his second career start against the Cardinals with Colt McCoy under center in place of the injured Kyler Murray.
Unless Kyler Murray makes miraculous strides in his injury recovery, Colt McCoy is set to captain an overhauled Cardinals team against an annually middling Ron Rivera squad that’s counting on former fifth-rounder Sam Howell as its new signal-caller. Not exactly a recipe for fireworks.
One of the biggest questions, of course, will be how many fans will return now that Daniel Snyder is most likely not to be the owner by the time the 2023 season launches.
The home schedule features the three NFC East divisional rivals (Eagles, Cowboys, Giants), the 49ers, Bears, Dolphins, Bills and Cardinals.
Keep in mind the NFC will be playing eight home games and the AFC nine home games in the 2023 schedule.
Here is the complete schedule in a tweet, listing the home games in burgundy and the road games in gold.
McCoy has been a good pro, but there is a significant difference in comparing the two, meaning the comp just isn’t accurate.
Everyone these days loves comparisons. Whether it’s the NFL, NBA, or MLB, fans want to project what young players could be at the professional level, and a big part of that projection is comparing them to a current pro.
Draft analysts are often known for comparing college players to a professional, specifically in the NFL. While some comparisons make sense, others not so much. For instance, some players are compared to an NFL player because of their size or what they “look like.” Some of those comparisons come off as a bit lazy.
That leads us to Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell.
Matt Miller is a draft analyst for ESPN. Coming out of North Carolina in the 2021 NFL draft, Miller compared Howell to a quarterback Washington fans know well: Colt McCoy.
At first glance, it’s not a bad comparison. McCoy, a former third-round pick, will enter his 13th NFL season in 2023. And there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for the 36-year-old McCoy.
In a recent appearance on 106.7 The Fan with Lynnell Willingham, Miller discussed the Commanders and Howell and said he doesn’t view Howell as a “playoff-caliber quarterback.”
“I do not see him as a playoff-caliber quarterback, I’m sorry,” Miller told Willingham via Ben Krimmel of Audacy. “I know people wanna believe; I just don’t. Coming out of college there was definitely talk in the lead-up to the season that he could be a QB1. It was him, and Spencer Rattler were the toast of the town, and it didn’t work out for either guy.”
OK, fair enough. There’s nothing wrong with Miller believing that. After all, Howell did last until the fifth round, whether you believe he should’ve gone higher or not.
Here’s where things get a bit interesting.
“I had Sam rated as my No. 74 overall player, and I compared him to Colt McCoy,” Miller continued. “Undersized, shorter guy, a little bit thicker body, not great arm strength. I know a lot of people said, ‘He’s Baker Mayfield.’ I never thought he had as much twitch as a runner as Baker had, especially, at Oklahoma, but some of that ability to play on the move, to kinda be like more of a gamer in some ways, let’s find a window, let’s make the throw. I think we saw him pick some of that up toward the end of the year.”
There was one small part of Miller’s quote that just completely made his comparison irrelevant: “Not great arm strength.”
Miller had good points about some of the other things, similar builds, shorter compared to the top QBs, etc. However, his comment about arm strength tells me he didn’t watch a lot of Howell at UNC.
Let’s go back to McCoy for a second. McCoy was a college legend at Texas. It was his lack of NFL physical measurables, arm strength being chief among them, that dropped him to the third round. Comparing anyone to him is not a knock on McCoy. Howell has proven nothing at the NFL level, and if he has a 13-year career [and counting], then he’ll be fortunate.
But just because they were similarly sized coming out of college [McCoy, 6-foot-1, 216 & Howell, 6-foot-1, 218] doesn’t make them an accurate comparison. Both are gamers, and both can make plays off schedule, but even similarly sized, the two are built a bit differently.
But, again, let’s go back to the arm strength comparison.
Judge for yourself.
Those are some throws from his time in Chapel Hill.
Here is a more recent throw that had everyone buzzing.
Again, this isn’t a McCoy-bashing session. But if saying both lack arm strength is one of your comparisons, well, you are dead wrong. One of the knocks on Howell coming out of North Carolina was his footwork and mechanics. McCoy didn’t have those issues. There was also the type of offense Howell ran with the Tar Heels.
Defending Howell’s arm strength also isn’t saying he is going to be a top NFL quarterback. He’s started one game. He remains a project, a talented project, but a project nonetheless. No one, including the Commanders, know if Howell will be a franchise quarterback. And if things don’t work out as the starter, he has a bright future in the NFL, even if his ceiling is a long-term backup.
I’ve heard a lot about this debate over the last 24 hours. Several people made good points. But the one point I can’t defend and nullifies Miller’s comparison is the arm strength comment. He lost me there. And before some on social media bash every Washington fan who doesn’t agree with the comparison, understand that no one is trashing one or other for disagreeing with Miller. It’s just simply not accurate.
Some will argue that “it’s not a bad comparison” being compared to McCoy. True, it isn’t, but the point remains, it’s still not accurate. Some will say, “Outside of arm strength it is a good comparison.” Well, considering Miller used that as one of the ways to compare the two, it is not a fair comparison.
This isn’t the space to bring up Miller’s other misses. After all, everyone has missed on NFL prospects. I have. You have. Daniel Jeremiah, Mel Kiper, Ozzie Newsome, Ron Wolf, Bill Belichick, Joe Gibbs, etc., have all missed on prospects. Had Miller simply not mentioned McCoy and Howell having “not great arm strength,” this isn’t even a debate.
As for Howell, you can count Jeremiah and former NFL quarterback — and current ESPN analyst — Dan Orlovsky among those who believe in his ability. As we — and many others — have stated, it’s all up to Howell to prove he belongs as an NFL starting quarterback.
Open Source AI ChatGPT ranked the top 10 Big 12 quarterbacks of all-time. Four of them were Oklahoma Sooners.
Over the life of the Big 12 conference, it’s become synonymous with high-scoring offenses and high-level quarterback play.
There have been Heisman trophy winners and first-overall picks, and the conference that’s been at the forefront of the aerial assault that’ taking college football by storm.
We’ve all spent time ranking quarterbacks, but for this version, we thought it’d be fun to let the computers do it. Using Open AI’s ChatGPT, we simply asked, “Who are the best Big 12 quarterbacks of all time?”
Its response?
These quarterbacks have all made significant contributions to their respective teams and have impressive statistics and accomplishments. However, it’s important to note that there have been many other great quarterbacks in the Big 12 who could also be considered for this list. – ChatGPT
Their top 10 is pretty solid. There are certainly arguments to be made for several others that made significant impacts or even won a Heisman trophy, but not bad from a computer-generated AI.
Jonathan Gannon says that McCoy, who had an offseason procedure, is “ready to go.”
The Arizona Cardinals were expecting to be shorthanded at quarterback with the start of the offseason program. In addition to being without Kyler Murray for football activities as he receivers from a torn ACL, backup Colt McCoy was expected to be limited after having a minor offseason procedure.
That might not be the case.
“Colt, he’s doing great,” said head coach Jonathan Gannon Tuesday with the start of the offseason program. “He gets a little extra work here and there but he’s ready to go.”
In Phase 1 of the offseason program, which covers the first two weeks, it is all “dead-ball activities” so nothing is major football work.
Gannon said he likes where Murray is at with his rehab and also likes where David Blough is.
While Murray is out, McCoy and Blough will compete for the main backup spot with the potential to start games at the beginning of the season before Murray’s return.
No one is saying McCoy won’t fill in while Murray is out but no one is saying anything about McCoy.
The Arizona Cardinals will likely start the 2023 season with someone at quarterback other that Kyler Murray. Murray, of course, is coming back from ACL surgery and could miss a few games to start the year.
Colt McCoy is still under contract and was held out of last year’s season finale in part because of the important role he would have in Murray’s absence.
However, Kliff Kingsbury was fired and Steve Keim left the organization, two of McCoy’s biggest fans.
The Cardinals now have a new general manager, head coach and coaching staff and no one is saying that McCoy will be the guy to play in Murray’s place.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon said at the combine that if Murray isn’t ready to play to start the season, they “will have a plan in place for who we have playing quarterback for us.”
Neither Gannon nor GM Monti Ossenfort have suggested McCoy is that guy.
McCoy is coming off a minor procedure that will limit him in the offseason program but, had the previous staff remained in place, McCoy would have worked in the offseason as QB1 while Murray was out.
As free agency approaches, it will be something to watch.
Will they bring in a quarterback with knowledge of the offense to hold things down until McCoy is back or will they spend more money on a player would could start ahead of McCoy?
How big is the Cardinals’ need at quarterback this offseason?
With a new general manager and coaching staff, the Arizona Cardinals have a lot of work to do with the roster coming off a 4-13 season.
Virtually every position group has some level of need to be addressed.
Over the next few days in this offseason series, we will take a look at each position group, what the offseason outlook is, what questions they have what what level of need is there — critical, urgent or secondary.
