Ranking All Arizona Cardinals Quarterbacks in Franchise History

The list of NFL organizations. From there, the drop-off can only be classified as drastic.

In fact, dating back to 1950, when Curly Lambeau coached the Chicago-based Cardinals, the squad has produced only 13 Pro Bowl seasons at the quarterback position, and those honors went to just eight different signal-callers. On average, that’s about one nod every six campaigns.

That does give Kyler Murray a chance to move up the rankings as his career progresses — assuming he remains with the Cardinals, which is far from guaranteed after a tumultuous period followed his early success. It also means the franchise leaderboard is checkered with more misses than hits.

Using the Total Yards Added (TYA) metric I developed for QB Math, which evaluates quarterbacks’ success relative to league average in four facets of the game — rushing, ing, sack avoidance, and fumble avoidance — we’re highlighting each and every one of the 79 Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks with at least one qualified game for the organization since 1950. These rankings of career production will be updated continuously and are accurate heading into Week 5 of the 2023 NFL season.

Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks Nos. 79-11

Keep in mind that this is about career production.

Playing in more games usually means moving further away from the league-average score of zero, which is why Jake Plummer — objectively not the least-talented of the Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks — falls all the way to the bottom of the pack despite having a per-game output far superior to other low finishers such as John Skelton, Josh Rosen, and Ryan Lindley.

10. Frank Tripucka

• Years: 1950-52
• Stats: 3-3 record, 69-of-149 (46.3%), 1,004 yards, 6 TD, 8 INT
• Total Yards Added: 66.0

Frank Tripucka played in a drastically different era, back when the running game was the obvious focus of every offense throughout the NFL. Since TYA compares a quarterback’s production to the league-average figures during the season in question, the expected baseline was far lower during the early ’50s. Even still, he didn’t exactly push the Chicago Cardinals into contention.

9. Boomer Esiason

• Years: 1996
• Stats: 3-5 record, 190-of-339 (56.0%), 2,293 yards, 11 TD, 14 INT
• Total Yards Added: 87.729

Though Boomer Esiason enjoyed a fantastic career for the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets, he wasn’t the same player when he finally became a quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.

He started eight games during his age-35 season in 1996, competing with Kent Graham for playing time, and didn’t do much of note — either good or bad. In fact, he only posted two games with three touchdown strikes, and one of those also featured four interceptions in a 37-34 shootout victory.

8. Joshua Dobbs

• Years: 2023-present
• Stats: 1-3 record, 87-of-123 (70.7%), 814 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
• Total Yards Added: 125.143

Joshua Dobbs probably isn’t going to supplant Kyler Murray as the entrenched starter for the 2023 Arizona Cardinals. And even if Murray is on the move, Dobbs will likely fall behind an incoming rookie sooner than later. But through the first four games of the current campaign, he’s more than held his own by eliminating mistakes and taking what the defense has given him.

7. Mike Buck

• Years: 1995
• Stats: 0-0 record, 20-of-32 (62.5%), 271 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
• Total Yards Added: 129.129

One year before Boomer Esiason took the reins, Mike Buck backed up Dave Krieg and made four respectable appearances off the pine. Averaging 8.5 yards per ing attempt kept the chains moving even if he could only tally a lone touchdown on a garbage-time to Rob Moore that closed the gap to 31-19 in a blowout home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

6. M.C. Reynolds

• Years: 1958-59
• Stats: 1-5 record, 124-of-234 (53.0%), 1,751 yards, 15 TD, 12 INT
• Total Yards Added: 211.057

The good news: M.C. Reynolds threw more touchdowns than interceptions during an era in which that was by no means a guarantee even for some of the league’s better quarterbacks.

The bad news: A quarterback who posted a 1-5 record in his six starts for the franchise checks in at No. 6 due to a dearth of standout options.

5. Charley Johnson

• Years: 1961-69
• Stats: 36-28-5 record, 1,030-of-2,047 (50.3%), 14,928 yards, 108 TD, 110 INT
• Total Yards Added: 360.339

At long last, the countdown of Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks churns out someone who spent multiple years in a significant role. Charley Johnson logged five consecutive seasons as the primary starter back when the franchise was located in St. Louis, and he consistently held his own. Sometimes, he was even better, too.

During the 1963 campaign, Johnson went 9-5 under center, led the NFL with 423 ing attempts, threw 28 touchdowns, and made the only Pro Bowl appearance of his career. Though he didn’t receive any notable accolades during the follow-up campaign, he again won nine games while pacing the league in completions (223), attempts (420), ing yards (3,045), and — unfortunately for his repeat Pro Bowl chances — interceptions (24).

4. Jim Hart

• Years: 1966-83
• Stats: 87-88-5 record, 2,590-of-5,069 (51.1%), 34,639 yards, 209 TD, 247 INT
• Total Yards Added: 552.962

Before taking his talents to the nation’s capital as a 40-year-old in 1984, Jim Hart spent a whopping 18 seasons suiting up for the St. Louis Cardinals, who picked him up after he’d finished his collegiate career at Southern Illinois.

Hart made four consecutive Pro Bowl appearances during the mid-’70s, submitting a stretch in which he went 38-18 while throwing 70 touchdown es. He also led the NFL in fourth-quarter comebacks during three separate seasons and successfully completed 23 game-winning drives throughout his memorable tenure.

3. Carson Palmer

• Years: 2013-17
• Stats: 38-21-1 record, 1,373-of-2,197 (62.5%), 16,782 yards, 105 TD, 57 INT
• Total Yards Added: 742.587

Jim Hart stands at least a tier above Charley Johnson, and the leaps continue as we move into the podium spots.

Carson Palmer, though he made just one Pro Bowl roster for the Arizona Cardinals after spending his prime years with the Cincinnati Bengals, found so much success during the 2015 campaign that his time in the desert won’t be lost to fading memories anytime soon. In fact, that was essentially all it took for him to have his No. 3 jersey the franchise’s Ring of Honor.

Steering his squad to a 13-3 record, Palmer tossed 35 scores through the air, only threw 11 interceptions, and led the NFL in a number of advanced metrics en route to a second-place finish in AP MVP voting, behind only Cam Newton. The rest of his five-year tenure in Arizona was far more forgettable, but that campaign alone does a lot of heavy lifting in these rankings.

2. Neil Lomax

• Years: 1981-88
• Stats: 47-52-2 record, 1,817-of-3,153 (57.6%), 136 TD, 90 INT
• Total Yards Added: 1,586.444

Neil Lomax spent his entire eight-year NFL career with the Cardinals, even making the transition from St. Louis to Phoenix for his final season in 1988. And a memorable career it was, highlighted by two Pro Bowl appearances (including a ing-yardage title in 1987) and a playoff appearance in 1982.

Therein lies the rub.

Lomax put up plenty of laudable statistics once he wrestled the starting job away from Jim Hart, but the 1981 second-round pick had trouble translating that into many victories. He had a losing record for his career and was sacked far too frequently, though it’s hard to pin too much of the blame on him considering the perpetual limitations of his offensive line and ing cast.

1. Kurt Warner

• Years: 2005-09
• Stats: 27-30 record, 1,371-of-2,105 (65.1%), 15,843 yards, 100 TD, 59 INT
• Total Yards Added: 2,616.643

Kurt Warner spent the final five seasons of his Hall of Fame career with the Arizona Cardinals, rebounding from injuries to produce prolific ing numbers in his late-30s. Even though he was under center for just five seasons, he sits at No. 5 on the franchise leaderboard for career ing touchdowns and ing yards — at least until Kyler Murray likely moves past him in both categories.

His 2008 efforts will go down in the archives as one of the best seasons in franchise NFL history as he won nine games while throwing for 4,583 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Warner was a statuesque pocket er throughout his playing days — even more true at the tail end — but that didn’t prevent him from using his tremendous arm strength to move the ball down the field in chunks.

Had that ’08 effort ended with a Super Bowl victory instead of a devastating defeat as Ben Roethlisberger hit Santonio Holmes for the go-ahead touchdown with just 35 seconds remaining, the legend of Arizona-era Warner would only be more significant.