5 players in wide-open competition for Cardinals’ tight end job

Wide-open fight for tight end job in Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Just about every position is set as the Arizona Cardinals wind down training camp. The tight end though? Not even close.

Five players are vying for the spot with no one distancing himself from the pack so far.

“That’s a battle. It’s a contested battle,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said Tuesday. “We’ve got three more preseason games and practices to find out and we’ll make our decision at that point.”

The Cardinals have not had a big-name tight end since Jay Novacek, and his best years came after he left the franchise for Dallas in 1989.

There certainly are no household names among this group.

They are, in alphabetical order:

—Anthony Becht, a first-round pick of the New York Jets in 2000 who spent nine years in the NFL but was released by St. Louis after playing 16 games, 11 as a starter, last season. Arguably the best blocker of the group, he’s missed nearly all of training camp with a sore hamstring before returning to practice this week.

—Dominique Byrd, a former third-round draft pick of the Rams and teammate of the Cardinals’ Matt Leinart at USC. Byrd was released by St. Louis in April 2008 and was out of football last season.

—Ben Patrick, a seventh-round pick out of Delaware in 2007, battled injuries but still made some significant contributions last season, including a touchdown catch in the Super Bowl. Patrick is ineligible for the first four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

—Leonard Pope, the towering three-year NFL veteran caught 23 passes, five for touchdowns in 2007 before a season-ending ankle injury. The third-round pick out of Georgia in 2006 had more injury problems last year and was plagued by inconsistency.

—Stephen Spach, undrafted as a rookie out of Fresno State in 2005, was out of football in 2006 and played sparingly for New England in 2007. He was released by the Patriots after two games last season, then signed with Arizona, where he started six regular-season games and two in the playoffs. In the first-round game against Atlanta, Spach caught a 23-yard pass on third-and-16 that clinched the victory. The next week against Carolina, he went down with a torn ACL and is coming off surgery.

Whisenhunt said he’d like someone to emerge as clearly the best, but since the position involves blocking and catching, the team probably will have to rely on more than one player.

“At that position we ask you to do so many things that it’s going to be a little bit by committee no matter what,” he said. “The guy that’s out there who can do everything, you don’t find those guys a lot. So we’re going to try to have a good mix of guys that can do a number of different things and we feel like we have that. We feel like we have a lot more talent at that position this year.”

Spach was working with the first team on Monday, with Patrick on the second and Pope on the third. But that can change in a hurry.

“Nobody’s perfect at the position, that’s for sure,” Spach said. “We’re all here on one-year contracts. We’re all trying to make the best of the situation, but we don’t take it personally. It doesn’t get to a personal level. It’s a business, and we’ll help each other out as we can. We’re all trying to help the position regardless.”

Like Spach, Byrd is just happy to be back in uniform.

“It’s really special to me, getting on the field even for the first preseason game,” Byrd said. “It’s been over a year since I’ve been on the field with the lights on. I’m just trying to get better, get more comfortable in the offense. I just want to play fast and contribute the best way I know how.”

Kurt Warner said that because of the other talent on offense, there’s time to sort out the tight end situation.

“At least at this point, I’m not fully concerned about it because of the other guys we’ve got put in place and the way other guys are playing,” he said. “You always know you can fall back on a lot of guys. But hopefully a couple of guys will separate themselves to where they can really be weapons for us this year.”