Arizona Cardinals already scraping bottom of quarterback barrel
As free agent quarterbacks get spoken for, the Arizona Cardinals are already lowering their target market.
The quarterback dominoes in NFL free agency are falling quickly, with Drew Brees, Kirk Cousins and Case Keenum already spoken for. The Arizona Cardinals are looking to replace the retired Carson Palmer, with increasingly fewer veteran options.
Earlier this offseason, Cardinals general manager Steve Keim cited the importance of pivoting quickly to other plans at quarterback in free agency. Plan A seems to have been Cousins, and a potential Plan B in Keenum is gone. Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford are still out there, but the Cardinals apparently have another veteran in mind
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Arizona will have Mike Glennon on their radar once the Chicago Bears officially release him on Wednesday.
Glennon signed a three-year, $45 million deal with Chicago last offseason, but the guaranteed money was front-loaded to last year and the Bears can escape with little financial implications now. The team informed him he’ll be cut late last month, with four touchdowns and five interceptions over four starts in 2017 before he gave way to Mitch Trubisky.
The Cardinals are sure to hone in quarterback in April’s draft, where they currently have the 15th overall pick. So blocking a rookie like Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson with someone like Cousins may not have been a good plan, even leaving aside the critical aspect of having to create the salary cap room to make that signing.
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The two other quarterbacks Arizona had last season, Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert, are free agents as well. Glennon is not an upgrade over them, but a new coaching staff has no immediate ties to the aforementioned duo. Add in that Glennon has very recent experience as a placeholder for a first round rookie quarterback, and it’s not out of the question that he’ll be deemed a perfect fit as the Cardinals’ Week 1 starter.