After rookie quarterback Clayton Tune made his first career start in Week 9, it appeared that he would quietly move back into an invisible role as backup quarterback who gets no snaps.
After all, Kyler Murray was coming back and, for the first eight games of the season when Josh Dobbs started, he did not log a single offensive snap.
With Murray back, though, Tune appears to have a greater role than he did when Dobbs was the starter.
He played two offensive snaps, lined up twice for what would appear as a “tush push” quarterback sneak, a play in which the quarterback snaps take the snap under center and pushes forward with the help of his teammates in the backfield.
One was the sneak in which Tune scored a touchdown. The other was a fake sneak and toss to James Conner for the first down.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon suggested that Tune will continue to come in for those plays.
“We like the play type with Clayton in there,” Gannon said after the game. “He’ll continue to have some certain plays up each week and he did a good job executing. That’s not easy to do coming in a game cold and getting a snap and scoring.”
Tune is 6-foot-3 and 220 lbs, making him a little better fit for that quarterback sneak play, as opposed to the 5-foot-10, 207-lb Murray.
With the Cardinals running both types of plays on Sunday, converting on both, teams will have to account for both options.
Tune played terribly in his start against the Cleveland Browns. He was sacked seven times, turned the ball over three times and had only 58 passing yards in a 27-0 loss.
Gannon was impressed with how Tune responded.
“He had a great week of practice — a really good week of practice,” he said. “He came back the right way after getting beat up a little bit, and that’s how coaches and players need to respond when you get beat up a little bit. It shows your true character.”
It would appear that Tune can officially be someone for fans to have on their radar for fantasy and prop bet purposes.
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