Former Arizona Cardinals QB Ryan Lindley signed by New England Patriots

Former Arizona Cardinal QB Ryan Lindley, a 2012 sixth round draft pick from the Whisenhunt-Graves era, has been signed to a 1-year contract with the New England Patriots. The news from Foxboro is that QB3 Matt Flynn has been unable to stay healthy and was released this morning with Lindley expected to take over as the QB3. The Patriots are very aware of Lindley’s recent "success" with the Arizona Cardinals and have faith in their system that they can improve upon Lindley’s raw talents and attribute part of his issues with the systems that he’s been playing in.

This is another good example of the Patriots taking a project quarterback that has good physical skills with the hopes that they can reprogram him to work in their system. They’ve tried it with Tim Tebow who did not last long due to throwing motion issues and difficulties picking up the system. Lindley has played in two difficult systems, playing under Ken Whisenhunt and Bruce Arians, and the Patriots have stated that they intend to use Lindley as the QB3 for insurance purposes and think that he has the right tools that just need to be refined.

The statistics for Lindley are well known, especially his 10.9 QBR in the loss to the Panthers in the playoffs mixed with his 11 INT and 2 TD ratio. It will be interesting to watch and see if Lindley is able to rebuild his skill set in the Pat’s system and change his reputation as statistically one of the worst quarterbacks in the modern NFL-era.

One thing is for certain, Arizona Cardinals fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief, with Lindley signed elsewhere it will be much more difficult for Ryan Lindley to pop back up on the Cardinals roster.