In which retreads are re-treaded by the league's most pitiable franchises.
Image by Bob Leverone / AP
NFL teams without a franchise quarterback basically have two options: try and get one, or roll over and die. The teams that try and get one can go for a big-bucks free agent signing, or take a flier in the draft. Each approach has its ups and downs. But plenty of teams of teams choose simply roll over and die. And by that, I mean: they get rid of Kevin Kolb so they can trade for Carson Palmer.
Or they trade Carson Palmer so they can get Matt Flynn. Matt Cassel and Ryan Fitzpatrick are sometimes involved. They jettison one mediocre-to-bad quarterback in exchange for another mediocre-to-bad quarterback, thereby ensuring another season in the same genre of grim and demoralizing as the one that came before it. What we have is a sort of Carousel of Sadness: the shuttling of Grade-C signal-callers from one FUBAR case to another. And right now the NFL offseason is in mid-Carousel.
Arizona Cardinals — OUT: Kevin Kolb, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley. IN: Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton, Dread And Terror.
Image by Tom Gannam / AP
What was magnificent about Arizona's quarterbacking situation last year was not so much the failure of any one passer, but rather the collective ineptitude, a sort of sum-of-its-parts badness that saw four different guys start over the course of a 16 game season and only one of them, Kolb, win more than one game. (The others were a combined 2-9.)
The solution? Bring in Carson Palmer, who most recently led the Oakland Raiders to a 4-12 season, and Drew Stanton, an insurance policy for your insurance policy. HIDE THE FIREWORKS IN FLAGSTAFF, KIDS.