Carson Beck starting against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 10 of his rookie year wasn't the plan. If Gardner Minshew hadn't gotten hurt, Beck would still be the backup on Sunday.

But Minshew did get hurt. And Jacoby Brissett did get traded. Whatever the original thought was from the organization of getting their third-round pick playing time, it was forcefully shifted to right now.

It's no secret one of the tasks in 2026, depending on how the results went early in the season, was to see what Beck might be on the NFL level, what his future might be, what the Cardinals might want to do at the quarterback position in the coming offseason and how Beck fits into that concept.

Here. We. Go.

"I have no expectations for him except to just go out and play his game one play at a time," coach Mike LaFleur said. "Go let it rip, have some fun and have some fun with your guys. At least he's been with a lot of these guys in the scout team huddle and now they get to go do it on Sunday."

The Cardinals last had a rookie quarterback start in 2023, Clayton Tune in Cleveland. That was also out of necessity, after the Cardinals traded Joshua Dobbs even though Kyler Murray wasn't quite ready to return yet from his knee injury. That … didn't go so well. (Myles Garrett, who will be on the field Sunday, played in that game too.)

Before that, it was Kyler Murray's 2019 debut, which started poorly but had a riveting ending and ultimately a tie in Week 1 of 2019.

Rookie quarterbacks that have started for the Cardinals since moving to Arizona:

Of course, past performance is not indicative of future results. Beck is not Murray or Tune, or anyone else on that list. He is the guy that, for now, could be the Cardinals quarterback of the future. But he has to show progress toward that over these last eight games.

That starts Sunday.

"I think for me the biggest thing is (to) go out, have fun, give relentless effort, exude confidence and really just try to make everybody around me better," Beck said. "I haven't played football in a while. The last time I had the opportunity to go out on a football field was our first preseason game. I'm really excited for the opportunity. I'm really looking forward to it."

-- Trey McBride is now going to be a team captain. The Cardinals lost one when they traded Brissett, and besides, "he earned it," LaFleur said. LaFleur also said McBride had come close to being voted a captain before the season.

"Every single day he puts in the work, and the guys see that," LaFleur said. "The way that he plays on Sunday. It's how he practices too. Maybe not as much (expletive)-talking, but nonetheless, He practices like he wants to be the best in the world. The second thing that is awesome about any leader, but any person in general, he is himself. He's not trying to be anyone that he's not."

-- Starting center Hjalte Froholdt has never missed a game since signing with the Cardinals in 2023. That changes Sunday with Froholdt dealing with a concussion. His replacement – dealing with, among others, Aaron Donald – is Hayden Conner. Conner started 43 games in college, but all at guard. (He did play center in a college playoff game.) Conner also was Beck's center in the preseason and the Hall of Fame game, so there is familiarity.

-- No Michael Wilson. No Kendrick Bourne. No Jalen Brooks even. The wide receiver room has been trimmed significantly. The Cardinals still have their best pass catcher, however, as McBride's usage might go nuclear. Then again, other teams probably know that too.

I asked McBride, tongue-in-cheek sure, if he expected to be quadruple-teamed now.

"I don't know what's going to happen," McBride said. "I'm just going to go out and run the route and catch as many balls as I can. I have no idea how they are going to play us now. But I am ready for it all and excited for the challenge."

-- McBride, who is trying to extend his streak of 11 games with at least seven catches, has 73 receptions for 598 yards. Both are career-highs at this point in a season. According to Next Gen Stats, he has produced 123 yards over expected so far (meaning that expected yards on those 73 catches was only 475 yards, showing in part how his routes are consistently shorter in this offense.) He has 221 yards after the catch and 116 after contact, also career-bests at this point in a season.

"He's the best player on our offense," Beck said.

-- Beck's final college victory was at State Farm Stadium in the College Football Playoff semifinals, running in the game-winning touchdown against Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl. He also had two TD passes in that game. Since he was hurt during the Cardinals' lone home preseason game, this will be his first appearance in a game at the stadium since that victory.

-- The Cardinals have not allowed a touchdown reception to these Pro Bowl wide receivers the last five games: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Puke Nacua, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Only Nacua, with 80, had more than 69 yards.

Now the Cardinals don't have as much of a heavy lift. Nacua, who has been getting crazy targets, is hurt. Davante Adams was already sidelined. The Rams wide receiving corps is as little experienced as the Cardinals. Not that it will matter to the Arizona defense.

"If you slack, you're gonna get done up," cornerback Max Melton said. "It's still the NFL. That's really what we are saying. We don't care who it is. We are preparing the same way. Hell naw. We're preparing the same way. We're not going to get embarrassed."

-- The reality going into this game on the Cardinals' wide receiver side. The top four receivers have eight catches this season: Devin Duvernay (4), Reggie Virgil (3), Simi Fehoko (1), and Harrison Wallace III (0).

-- LaFleur had history with new backup quarterback Josh Johnson. In a small way, he had a little with the other new QB, undrafted rookie Joey Aguilar, signed off the Jaguars practice squad. The Cardinals – particularly QB coach Matt Schaub and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett – targeted the 25-year-old early in the draft process. Aguilar was brought in on a 30 visit.

But they had signed Gardner Minshew to go with Jacoby Brissett, and already had Kedon Slovis. Once the Cardinals drafted Beck, Aguilar was redundant. At least, until this week.

"We had some interest in him and when all this kind of unfolded, it was an easy deal for us," LaFleur said.

Aguilar has ties to Arizona. His father hails from San Luis, and he still has family there. His uncle and cousin live in the Valley, and his brother attends Arizona State. He was in meetings in Jacksonville when his phone was blowing up Monday, messages he was not taking. Once he had a moment, his agent told him he was headed to Arizona.

"The vets would tell me, 'Stay ready, stay ready,'" Aguilar said. "And then to me it happened."

-- The Rams backup QB is Stetson Bennett – the player Beck had to sit behind at Georgia when he arrived. Matthew Stafford is the starter of course, but if something happened, it'd be a twist to the story to have Beck and Bennett face off in the NFL.

Here we go, indeed.

See you Sunday.