Bruce Arians changed his mind, and now Drew Stanton will be back in the lineup. The coach emphasized many times it wasn't necessarily a knock on Gabbert. At the same time, if Gabbert had completed 60 percent of his throws with a touchdown, he probably is still starting Sunday against the Giants and Stanton is not. But the Cards are in this red-zone rut, and Arians is trying to get out of it.

There are a lot of arguments here -- and I've heard most of them on social media, bellowing from both sides. Arians thinks Stanton is better positioned to get a win against the Giants. If he doesn't do well enough, would I be shocked with Gabbert going back to the lineup in Seattle? No. But as for evaluating Gabbert, I'm not sure how much more you learn from Gabbert in seven games that you haven't already seen in five.

We won't talk about the tanking vs. winning. (Today, Arians called wanting to lose to better your draft spot "bulls*.") Maybe Stanton doesn't appreciably increase the odds of winning over Gabbert. The rest of the pieces on the team remain the same, overwhelmed -- especially on offense -- with injuries.

I'm not sure this has a significant impact on what happens going into 2018. The search for a long-term QB was always part of the offseason play, regardless of how Gabbert played. Gabbert could still be brought back in 2018. There are so many moving parts -- does Carson Palmer return? -- that it figures to be a fluid situation, no matter who was going to start the final couple of games in 2017.