The Arizona Cardinals won’t dress their starting quarterback in Saturday’s preseason finale with the New Orleans Saints, per Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. McManaman — via Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury — reoprts that Arizona won’t play quarterback Kyler Murray against New Orleans as well as rookie receiver Rondale Moore (resting a minor injury) and cornerback Robert Alford, who is unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols. Alford’s name might be familiar to Saints fans; his Atlanta Falcons teams went 4-7 against the Saints from 2013 to 2020.
It’s unclear exactly who won’t dress out for the final exhibition game played at Caesars Superdome, though Saints coach Sean Payton has said the team plans to rest most of its starting lineup. It doesn’t make sense to risk anyone expecting heavy minutes in the regular season on a meaningless preseason game. But if Alvin Kamara doesn’t get on the field against Arizona, it means he’ll go into Week 1 having not played at all. I won’t argue with resting the team’s best player before such a pivotal season, though.
So keep that in mind if you’ve got tickets for Saturday’s kickoff, which is currently scheduled for 7 p.m. CT. Also watch out for any scheduling changes due to Tropical Storm Ida, which is expected to make landfall near coastal Louisiana Sunday evening. We’ll let you know as soon as anything official is announced.
