It's been a rough year for starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
Through the first seven weeks of the season, a total of six teams have lost their starter for at least one game this year and so far, none of those teams -- Minnesota, Miami, Green Bay, Arizona, Tennessee, Oakland -- have contacted Colin Kaepernick about a possible tryout.
The latest team to lose their quarterback came this week when Carson Palmer was placed on injured after breaking his arm in Arizona's Week 7 loss to the Rams. If any team was going to at least contact Kaepernick, the Cardinals figured to make sense.
For one, they're familiar with him. Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has faced Kaepernick a total of six times since being hired by Arizona back in 2013. Also, let's not forget about the fact that Arians actually complimented Kaepernick less than a month ago.
"In the right system he's still a heck of a player," Arians said back in late September.
Also, the Cardinals have already proved they're willing to do anything to win this year. After David Johnson went down with an injury, the team tried to save their season by trading for Adrian Peterson.
Despite all that, Arians said this week that the Cardinals won't be taking a look at Kaepernick, and he actually had kind of an odd explanation.
"We've never had more than two on our roster since I've been here," Arians said earlier this week, via ABC15. "We liked Blaine Gabbert so much that we kept him this year. So, we're really where we always are. We may look for a practice squad arm."
Arians is basically saying that the Cardinals usually only carry two quarterbacks, so there's no need to look at Kaepernick.
The problem with that explanation is that it's simply not true. As Arians notes, for the first seven weeks this season the Cardinals carried three quarterbacks on their roster: Palmer, Drew Stanton and Gabbert. And yes, that's same Blaine Gabbert who gotten beaten out by Kaepernick for the starting job in San Francisco last year.
The Cardinals rostering three quarterbacks didn't just happen this season though. Back in 2015, Arizona pulled off a trade to bring in a third quarterback less than 10 days before the start of the regular season. In that deal, the Cardinals acquired Matt Barkley from Philadelphia, and Barkley ended up spending the season as the Cards' third quarterback.
The fact that Arians isn't looking to add a veteran quarterback is kind of interesting. The Cardinals coach has decided the team is going to roll with Stanton, and that's mainly because he has four years of experience in Arizona's offense. Of course, that experience didn't seem to help him much on Sunday when he went 5 of 14 for 66 yards in the Cards' 33-0 loss to the Rams. Stanton also threw an interception in the game.
Despite all the quarterback injuries, Kaepernick has yet to be brought in for a tryout this year.