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You Always Want - Need - To Have A Quarterback

Rodgers situation underscores hole when that guy isn’t there

Perhaps you have heard this before, but Aaron Rodgers might play for the Steelers, one of a couple of teams that still need to find a QB. That was a popular topic Monday morning here in Florida at the NFL owners meetings, since Steelers coach Mike Tomlin spoke at the AFC coaches breakfast and what Rodgers does is a big deal.

But what it means closer to home is how a team never wants to be in quarterback purgatory.

The Cardinals have been there before. It's why getting Kyler Murray to reach his ceiling is so important, and why it doesn't make sense to me all the people who talk about changing the QB without an answer about what you'd do next.

The Cardinals had a plan in 2010, after Kurt Warner retired. Or so they thought. Matt Leinart was supposed to be the guy. Then he wasn't (didn't even make it to the regular season, as it turned out.) By the time Carson Palmer arrived in a trade in 2013 to finally solve the issue – and the moment that trade went down, there wasn't a lot more certainty to that then the 2011 Kevin Kolb trade – the Cardinals had struggled.

We're more than a decade removed from those three tough seasons, so it's fading in the memory. But there was the Derek Anderson attempt (and the moxie of Max Hall), there was the Kolb trade that never quite worked, leading to a lot of John Skelton and some Ryan Lindley.

And QB matters a lot – Ken Whisenhunt had a good enough team in 2011 to finish .500 with Skelton most of the season.

So no, you don't want to be the Steelers or the Browns, a couple of teams that have pretty good rosters but need the main guy.

Every team does.

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