Alex Smithjoining the Kansas City Chiefs makes Matt Cassel a quarterback without a team. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the Arizona Cardinals are among the teams with interest in Cassel.
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The Cardinals hired coach Bruce Arians to fix the offense and a quarterback situation gone wrong. The fix will most likely include bringing in someone to replace the Kevin Kolb-John Skelton-Ryan Lindley triumvirate.
This is how these things fall -- Smith goes to K.C., Cassel goes elsewhere and so on. Last year the Colts planned to draft Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning went to Denver and Tim Tebow entertained us in New York. (We won't even guess where Tebow lands in this year's quarterback shuffle.)
The Cardinalswere interested in Smith, but now they're moving on to option No. 2. Arians wants to push the ball downfield and even though Cassel isn't known for his cannon, he would be an upgrade. Cassel did throw 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2008, and 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2010. So there's proof of success, just not sustained consistency.
Cassel isn't the long-term franchise quarterback, but he should be capable of leading a playoff run on a team with a strong defense and Larry Fitzgerald catching balls in this what-if scenario. Kolb and Cassel are two of the most recent precautionary tales in terms of signing free-agent quarterbacks with minimal experience, but at least Cassel kept the starting job in Kansas City and led the Chiefs to the playoffs.
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.
