The All-Time Arizona Cardinals Team Lineup: Quarterback

The offseason leads to a good time to reflect and make lists or debate questions, like “who’s the Mount Rushmore of your NFL team” or “What players should be in the Ring of Honor?’

I wanted to try a new exercise where the fans could assemble the all-time team for the Arizona Cardinals in the days leading up to a much anticipated training camp.

You take ONE game on a neutral field, pick the best player and go position by position, with Cards fans voting to assemble the greatest game-day roster of Arizona Cardinals in franchise history, period.

Here’s a few of the rules and guidelines

-All players must have played for the Arizona Cardinals

-Players must be remembered as Cardinals foremost, or for a majority of their career (aka saying “Emmitt Smith or Adrian Peterson is the greatest Cardinal running back ever” because he was a great running back doesn’t count)

-No impossible offensive alignments (ex. putting four tight ends on the field or finding 6 wide receivers)

-Talent wins over longevity (the goal is to find the team you’d take to win in a game) but that doesn’t mean players who played for the Cardinals forever shouldn’t be counted...

-St. Louis Cardinals do count, and if there’s an argument to be made for a Chicago Cardinal they can be included (however, it might be rare to pick them to win a single game on a field compared to today’s players unless they were the caliber of Jim Brown, for example)

Hopefully that makes sense. Now, let’s take a look at our qualifiers at the quarterback position:

Quarterback: (1) Starter

-Neil Lomax:

The longest starting quarterback in team history, Lomax threw for over 22,000 yards, 136 touchdowns with the team over a span of 8 years. The closest thing to a franchise quarterback the team had, but they only managed a 9-7 record and he retired early due to hip issues. A great “what was” but also “what could have been” player.

-Jake Plummer:

Speaking of “what could have been”, Plummer helped revitalize interest in the Cardinals in the desert, throwing for 17,000+ yards with the team along with 161 touchdowns and a trip to the playoffs. The team couldn’t keep him and he had a roller coaster of ups and downs but it ended with him on the Denver Broncos and eventually retiring for a career in handball. Still, as far as homegrown local Arizona products out of ASU, he was the prototype perhaps until the later two quarterbacks came along.

-Kurt Warner:

Warner’s impact on the Cardinals goes without saying. A Super Bowl trip and multiple playoff appearances (one of the greatest QB performances against the Packers ever) and he helped turn Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin into household names. He has a gold jacket to go along with 15,000+ yards and 100 touchdowns in his career and will always be remembered as a Cardinal great (and he he won a ring with the Rams as well).

-Carson Palmer

The most recent addition, Palmer also led the Cardinals to the playoffs twice, and put up a strong case for an MVP bid in 2015 coming off of an ACL tear. He piloted Bruce Arians’ system for 5 years and retired heading into the Ring of Honor this season behind 16,782 yards and 105 touchdowns before the offensive line couldn’t protect him any longer and he retired in 2017.

So #Birdgang it’s your time to sound off and make your selection!

For my money, there’s a few strong cases here but the only one name I’d pick above the others would be the one in Canton for the Cards for one game.

But what will you decide?

Tune in over the next few weeks to vote for your selections for the All-Time team of the Arizona Cardinals!