Arizona Cardinals release Brian Hoyer

Ever since the Arizona Cardinals acquired Carson Palmer from the Oakland Raiders, they had a surplus of quarterbacks on the roster and would surely release another player. After initially trying to trade Brian Hoyer, NFL Insider Adam Caplan reports that the Cardinals have unsurprisingly released Hoyer after not finding a trade partner for him. It was doubtful that the Cardinals would be able to find somebody willing to acquire Hoyer, as teams like the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers were not interested in trading for him.

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We’ll see if either of these teams decides to sign Hoyer, as he did play for the Steelers last season and is held in high regard by the organization. However, they seem pretty set at quarterback and did draft a guy in former Oklahoma Sooners star Landry Jones. Regardless, Hoyer should be able to find work quickly elsewhere and is one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league.

New England Patriots fans know how accurate their former backup quarterback is, but they also know that the smart QB is limited. Still, he is a solid backup who could help out several teams, and it’s going to be interesting to see where Hoyer lands. If he is able to land in the right spot, then he could even have an outside shot at starting. While that scenario is very slim, the Cardinals have now freed Hoyer and are now down to a more plausible number of backup QBs.

I wonder if the Browns are interested in signing Hoyer, even if they are reportedly not interested. It was initially reported that the Browns were interested when the Hoyer trade rumors first cropped up, and I wonder if the refutation of that report was solely under a trade scenario. But I guess the Browns like Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell enough, and I feel like there isn’t a fit there even if the Browns are more open to signing Hoyer. This will be one interesting story to watch, but I doubt we see Hoyer back in New England (though it isn’t impossible) with Ryan Mallett and Mike Kafka entrenched as backups (Mallett definitely more so than Kafka, but I still like Kafka as a third-stringer).

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