When discussing the Arizona Cardinals, the general knowledge is that they need a quarterback. The team knows it, the league knows it, the media know it and the fans do, too. Even Vince Young knows it. Bruce Arians was hired to fix the position.
How are they going to do it?
AZCentral.com Cardinals beat writer Kent Somers believes that the team will "flood" the position with players, going with quantity at least to start and find a starter for 2013.
I think the Cardinals are going to "flood" the quarterback position with players. They remain optimistic that Kevin Kolb can do the job but the injuries are a concern. And I think they will ask Kolb to restructure his contract and take less than the $11 million he's due to make. The Cardinals will draft a quarterback and the other two guys on the roster, John Skelton and Ryan Lindley, have a chance to stick. I don't know what coach Bruce Arians thinks of Brian Hoyer, who started the last game. He didn't play badly, considering he had been on the roster three weeks.
That is a lot to throw out there to see what happens. Clearly, when dealing with money, the team can afford to hold on to Skelton and Lindley. Neither makes much money, and that gives the team time to look at them early in minicamps and OTAs.
Already that is viably five guys the Cardinals will look at, and that might not be all of it.
Somers also seems to think that current San Franciso 49ers quarterback Alex Smith might be in the mix, as the team is possibly interested.
Don't discount the Cardinals possible interest in 49ers quarterback Alex Smith. I don't know if that means they would give up much in a trade for him, but I've heard they do like him. If he is released later this spring, I expect them to have interest.
How much interest will yet be determined, but an early look at the quarterback situation could see the Cardinals looking at six or more players to take a likely three roster spots.
This clearly will not take all of the offseason. We will know by March 15 if Kevin Kolb is in the mix. Hoyer is goingto be a free agent, so he might not return. Based on 2012, Skelton and Lindley look like long shots. Really the only thing that looks like will be certain is that the Cards are probably going to draft a quarterback and he will make the team.
I know that it is mainly because the Arians hasn't found his guy, but at a glance this doesn't look much different than the "competition" that Ken Whisenhunt would have for the position. But if you look further, you see that it is simply evaluation early. I get the feeling that it won't take long to eliminate candidates. If Kolb stays, he'll be the guy. Then things start falling into place. But if he's not the guy, this could be very interesting to watch, especially after the QB competitions we have seen over the past few seasons.
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