We traded for Barkley so I don't think we'll pick him up. At the same time, they've now seen Barkley and the draft pick is a sunk cost. Mallett wouldn't cost us any more picks.
I think we'd know or could find out what stage, if any, he was in the drug program.
With our line playing well and Carson being in sync with everything, I think his injury risk is reduced. But we've been there, and would anyone rather sign Lindley again or kick the tires on Mallett?
Young QB's with talent are pretty rare these days. It's going to be very interesting to see what kind of QB play the NFL has in 5 years or so when all these 33+ QB's are out of the league... or not. Even if these old QB's diminish, there has to be some semblance of talent to replace them, or QB's will continue getting older league wide.
Overall we don't know the entire situation and can presume whatever we want, but the Cardinals probably know more then us and potentially have access to even more. Clearly Mallett is a knucklehead to some degree, but the Texans look like a team on the brink of abject failure.
Mallett is clearly competitive and thinks highly of himself. While his transgressions clearly give reason to management releasing him, they are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. It's just that his transgressions are toxic to management authority, and put them in a bind, thus they hold stronger consequences. Though at the same time, P.J. Tucker has missed a flight or two and got a DUI so the transgressions themselves are not an automatic ticket out of town. It's because it appears he did them willfully to challenge authority of a management structure... a management structure that is under pressure and can't afford copycats and are in a position due to losing where it could spread.
We also must remember he was a member of the Patriots for a few years and BB isn't one to put up with crap, so if he could behave for BB, there is hope he could behave for someone else. Maybe Arians and Keim are someone he can respect.
It's interesting that Hoyer and Mallett were both backups for Brady, and that might play into the situation. Perhaps the Patriots staff, maybe even BB himself made some sort of comparison comment between Hoyer and Mallett, and Mallett sees this structure is clueless because they see the situation differently. They did keep Mallett and let Hoyer go. Perhaps it's just Mallett moping that he let Hoyer pass him by. We'll never really know, but there could be an interesting backstory that set the stage for all this to happen.
It would also be interesting to see if the Patriots pick him back up. It's possible they could but might not because they have moved on and it just doesn't make sense for them. But it's something to watch. At the very least if the Cards are interested, they could pick up the phone and call BB and get the low down from their perspective.
Hey the guy may be a complete knucklehead cancer, but until you know that for sure, you risk missing out on a potential QBOF. I don't think it's likely. I don't think it is even a decent shot. But how many GM's look stupid for not kicking the tires of Chris Johnson right now? How many people maybe assumed a bit too much.
Good GM's seek out the information for themselves and then make decisions. It would be nice to add to the mix and perhaps find a replacement next year for Stanton, but perhaps has a brighter future. Palmer won't last forever so we need to be searching. But we made a move so I believe we can tread cautiously. Nevertheless, a door just presented itself, and we'll see if Keim and BA decide to open it.
