Arizona Cardinals to wait and see on QB situation, 'comfortable' with Thomas starting if needed

The Arizona Cardinals have themselves in a precarious situation in terms of the quarterback position. They have one healthy quarterback at the moment --  rookie Logan Thomas.

Carson Palmer is still trying to come back from the nerve issue in his shoulder and Drew Stanton suffered a concussion in the second half of the team's 41-20 loss to the Denver Broncos.

So the team enters Week 6 not knowing exactly who they will have to start against the Washington Redskins.

"I'm comfortable with Logan when he gets all the snaps and all the reps that we'll be able to put a plan out there for him to be successful," head coach Bruce Arians told the media on Monday. "We feel like one of those two (Palmer or Stanton) is going to be back. If not, obviously we have to move onto door number two and get somebody to back up Logan."

Although he thinks he will get either Palmer or Stanton back, he did admit "there's a good chance" neither one will be available.

When asked if they had to bring someone in within the next couple of days, Arians said no. A backup to Thomas would be a decision that comes later in the week.

"We will exhaust all our options as to who is available and the right fit, at what what cost," he said.

Anybody they bring in is "coming in blind," Arians said, and "they're not going to help us, so it's going to be somebody hopefully that knows what our protections are and can possibly be a backup."

Basically, pray that guy doesn't have to play.

It conjures up memories of 2007, when both Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner were injured and the team had to bring in Tim Rattay and Tim Hasselbeck.

ESPN's Josh Weinfuss put together a list of five possible candidates of quarterbacks the Cardinals could bring in, based on their experience with Bruce Arians' offense.

The list includes Ryan Lindley (now on the Chargers' practice squad), Chandler Hornish (on the Vikings' practice squad), Dennis Dixon, Charlie Batch and Byron Leftwich, who are all free agents. Batch is 39 and Leftwich is 34. Neither has played since 2012. The latter three were with the Steelers when Arians was offensive coordinator.

Since they are emergency guys, I would think that Batch or Leftwich would be the best fit, simply because they have played quarterback with some level of success in the NFL and they could be more helpful to the rookie Thomas. Bringing in Lindley or Hornish would be a little bit tricky. If a team signs a player from another's practice squad, that player must remain on the 53-man roster for at least three weeks.

Wednesday is the first day of practice for the Cardinals this week. We will see how things go.

Arians said that Carson Palmer would have to get a full practice in to be able to play. He would limit Palmer's throws on the side rather than take reps in practice away as he works his way back. He would be on some sort of a "pitch count," but that would only be if he can practice at all.