Surprise! 2012 Arizona Cardinals had one of worst QB depth of last decade

Arizona Cardinals fans have it good these days at the quarterback position. Carson Palmer is coming of the best quarterbacking season in franchise history and the team won 13 games and made it to the NFC Championship Game.

But it wasn't too long ago it was quarterback hell.

An ESPN Insider article by Aaron Schatz ranked the worst QB depth charts of the last decade. The Cardinals came up on the list. Their 2012 depth chart was the second worst of the last 10 years.

We remember the days of Kevin Kolb, John Skelton and Ryan Lindley.

The Cardinals drafted John Skelton out of Fordham in the fifth round of the 2010 draft. He was forced to start four games as a rookie and was as terrible as you might imagine a fifth-round rookie with only FCS experience would be: Skelton completed just 48 percent of his passes with a miserable 22.7 QBR. So the next offseason, the Cardinals traded cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round pick to Philadelphia for Kevin Kolb.

Except, Kolb was also dismal for Arizona, finishing 31st out of 32 qualifying quarterbacks with 23.1 QBR in 2011. Skelton came back in when Kolb was injured for a few games but wasn't much better, with 33.8 QBR. However, he went 5-2 as a starter. Sure, the Arizona defense allowed less than 21 points in each game and all five wins came by less than a touchdown, but Skelton had shown he was "a winner." That made him the starter in 2012 with Kolb as the backup. Third string belonged to Ryan Lindley, a sixth-round rookie out of San Diego State. All three ended up starting games in a lackluster 5-11 season for the Cardinals.

On the season, the Cardinals threw for 12 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and eight of those touchdowns came from Kolb in his six games.

Kolb wasn't terrible that year. He threw the eight touchdowns and only three picks and took over the starting job after winning the season opener coming in after Skelton sprained his ankle. The team started 4-0. Then things went south. The combination of Skelton, Lindley and Brian Hoyer, who started the season finale, was four scores and 18 picks. That is awful.

The only QB room worse than the Cards in 2012 was the 2011 Washington Redskins with Rex Grossman, John Beck and Jonthan Crompton.

I really can't make any argument to say the Cardinals' situation is better or worse than where they are ranked. Can you?

All I know is I am glad those days are gone.