TEMPE — What makes a franchise quarterback?
That’s the question general manager Monti Ossenfort is facing for the first time in his Arizona Cardinals tenure.
As far as answering it, it starts with two crucial areas when evaluating prospects:
– Accuracy – Decision-making
“Those are always at the forefront,” Ossenfort said Thursday. “Every year, there are different flavors of quarterbacks, different sizes, different styles. It looks different. The college game looks different than the NFL game does.
“It’s up to us to really look at those guys and project how they’re going to translate to our league. Every year’s different and we certainly did our share of evaluation on the quarterbacks in this year’s draft.”
Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort pinpointed two big characteristics he looks for when evaluating QB prospects:
– Accuracy – Decision making
“Those are always at the forefront. … Every year’s different and we certainly did our share of evaluations on the quarterbacks in this… pic.twitter.com/8m8FNLek3w
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) April 16, 2026
New head coach Mike LaFleur added two more to that list when discussing college prospect traits during last month’s NFL owners’ meetings in Phoenix.
– Toughness – Natural thrower
“If you can’t sit back in the pocket and you’re flinching back there, you got no chance, right? … And then natural thrower. Is it coming out tight, compact, all that, decision-making, timing, accuracy?” LaFleur said.
Having a list of main characteristics is great, as long as there’s a quarterback capable of checking those boxes.
Is one waiting in this draft?
Looking at this batch of quarterback prospects, the trio of Ty Simpson, Drew Allar and Carson Beck feels about the closest to fulfilling most of those requirements.
All three can spin it. Allar wrapped up his 45-game stint at Penn State with the highest completion percentage in school history at 63.2%. How much would that number have shifted had he stayed healthy and not suffered a broken ankle six games into the season?
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Beck, meanwhile, posted a 72.4% completion percentage twice as a starter in two of the past three years. He led the ACC this past season at Miami. But sandwiched between those numbers are an SEC-leading 12 interceptions in Beck’s final year at Georgia. He added another 12 picks to the resume in 2025 (second in the ACC).
Simpson paced the SEC in attempts (473) and completions (305) for a 64.5% completion percentage in his first and only year as Alabama’s starter. That does, however, include a four-game finishing stretch of completing just 57.1% of his passes.
And though Simpson might pace the other two in pocket presence, Allar and Beck have a leg up on the Alabama prospect in the stature department.
At 6-foot-5, 228 pounds and 6-foot-4, 233 pounds, respectively, Allar and Beck better fit the mold of what LaFleur envisions his quarterback to be than the 6-foot-1, 211-pound Simpson.
Toughness isn’t defined solely by how much someone weighs or how tall they are, but in the NFL, having more of both is a good start.
They also have Simpson — who sat behind Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe for three seasons — beat when it comes to experience (15 starts), with Beck (43) and Allar (35) starting multiple college seasons.
“I think with that you got to look at the reasons for that. There are advantages to time on task. There are. There really are,” Ossenfort said. “I think you got to look at the why. Why is there not as big of a body of work? And then ultimately, you’re going to evaluate the tape that you have to evaluate.”
Taking all that information into account, plus the cost of business, Allar gets the slight nod. On top of being a bigger quarterback for LaFleur to work with, he also has valuable experience and wouldn’t take a first- or second-round pick to get. Getting that extra QB lottery ticket while addressing other needs higher up in the draft isn’t a bad idea whatsoever.
Allar also doesn’t have to play right away. While the Cardinals won’t come out and say it, Jacoby Brissett is expected to be the starting quarterback for Arizona. If he’s not the guy, Gardner Minshew is the next man up. Both present bridge options for the franchise.
Why burn those bridges before you truly use them by throwing a rookie into the fire?
Let him get his feet wet behind Brissett and see where the team is at midseason. If things are awry — like many expect them to be — crank up the on-the-job training with the rookie running things the rest of the way.
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