With Alex Smith heading to Kansas City, there’s not much chance that Matt Cassel will be returning to the Chiefs for the 2013 season.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Wednesday that we should look for the Chiefs to release Cassel and that the Cardinals are likely to be one of the teams interested in securing his services. The first half of that isn’t a surprise, but the second half does merit a raised eyebrow or two.
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians likes to throw the ball deep, something Cassel has proven to be woefully ill-equipped to do over the course of his NFL career. That, along with his 30 turnovers in the last 18 games, makes it seem like an odd choice to stop the quarterback carousel from spinning in the desert. While the Cardinals might not be keen on paying Kevin Kolb his current salary, it’s difficult to see where Cassel would be something more than replacing one bad fit with another.
Having said that, the price the Chiefs paid for Smith and the time they chose to pay it indicate the scarcity of sure-fire quarterback options available right now. Cassel wasn’t good last season, but he was better than Ryan Lindley and John Skelton. That might be enough for the Cardinals to add him to the mix even as they continue the search for a better answer to their quarterback question.