The 10 Best Cardinals Quarterbacks of All Time, Ranked

The reality is that the Cardinals — since moving to Phoenix in 1988, at least — haven’t had 10 good quarterbacks. But a Top 4 list doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

One of the oldest teams in professional football, dating back to 1920(!) when they were the Chicago Cardinals, the franchise traditionally has been mediocre to terrible for much of its history. And the same goes for a century’s worth of its quarterbacks.

Since relocating to Arizona from St. Louis, the team has had roughly once-a-decade dalliances with success, its fortunes rising and falling when it stumbles upon a decent passer.

This list does not take into account the men who suited up for the Cardinals in the Chicago and St. Louis eras. Even if it did, identifying 10 all-time greats wouldn’t be much easier.

10. Matt Leinart

Years as a Cardinal: 2006-2009
Awards & achievements: Numerous honors as one of USC’s best quarterback of all time.
Iconic moment: In the 2008 offseason, Leinart was photographed partying with four women in a hot tub. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt said at the time he was “disappointed” in his third-year QB.

After 105 seasons of mostly heartbreak, Cardinals fans know not to get their hopes up too much about the quarterback. Not that they haven’t been optimistic about a few of them, though. Near the very top of that list is Matt Leinart, the former USC standout drafted No. 10 overall by the Cardinals in 2006. Leinart led USC to two national championships and picked up a Heisman Trophy for his efforts in 2004, so long-suffering Cardinals fans were more than a little excited about the idea of lighting it up in the NFL. When the Cardinals benched veteran Kurt Warner after Week 3, Leinart looked the part of a player who’d signed a six-year, $51 million deal, setting a rookie record with 405 yards passing in Week 6. That was as good as it got in the Matt Leinart era. His second season ended in Week 5 with a sack that knocked him out for the rest of the season, paving the way for Warner to retake the reins and lead the Cardinals to (almost) glory.

9. Tom Tupa

Years as a Cardinal: 1988-89, 1991
Awards & achievements:

Super Bowl champ (2003)
First-team All-Pro (1999)
New England Patriots All-1990s Team

Iconic moment: In Week 1 of the 1999 season, Tupa — then a full-time punter — was called into action when New York Jets QB Vinny Testaverde went down with an injury. Tupa went 6-of-10 with 2 TDs.

Tom Tupa makes this list in the interest of novelty. He wasn’t a particularly good quarterback — because he wasn’t really a quarterback in the first place. A longtime NFL punter, the then-Phoenix Cardinals put the ball in his hands for 13 starts across two seasons when the team was synonymous with futility. Tupa did surpass 2,000 yards passing in 11 starts in 1989, but he also tossed 13 interceptions against only 6 touchdowns. After the Cards moved on from Tupa after the 1991 season, the Indianapolis Colts tried to use him as a backup passer in 1992, but after that, he turned to punting full-time — along with the occasional trick play as a QB — and wound up having a successful career that lasted through the 2004 season.

8. John Skelton

Years as a Cardinal: 2010-2012
Awards & achievements: Numerous school records at Fordham University.
Iconic moment: Led a game-winning drive on Christmas Day 2010 to beat the Dallas Cowboys 27-26.

John Skelton nudges his way on to this list based solely on his number of starts for the Cardinals: 17. Since the Cards moved to the desert in 1988, only four quarterbacks have more. Skelton will be best remembered as a placeholder between the team’s more successful Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer eras. A fifth-round pick by the Cards in 2010, Skelton was perfectly average (if we’re being charitable) in his 17 starts, though in 2011 he did manage a 5-2 record that was powered by a couple of 300-yard games. Still, his career touchdown-to-interception ratio (15-to-25) made it clear that Skelton would never be Arizona’s long-term solution at QB. His last start for the Cardinals was a dismal 58-0 whipping at the hands of the division rival Seattle Seahawks in December 2012. He racked up an atrocious 74 yards passing and tossed 4 INTs. It was his final regular-season appearance in the NFL.

7. Dave Krieg

Years as a Cardinal: 1995
Awards & achievements:

3-time Pro Bowler
Third most passing yards in Seahawks history

Iconic moment: On December 2, 1984, Kreig set a Seahawks record with 5 touchdown passes in a single game, a 38-17 win over the Detroit Lions.

Dave Krieg was a good quarterback for many years, playing 19 seasons in the NFL, most notably as the longtime passer for the Seahawks. By the time he was signed by the Cardinals for the 1995 season, he was already 37 years old and well past his prime. Arizona was coming off an 8-8 season — which, by the franchise’s standards, qualified as a success — and was looking for veteran leadership until the next time they could draft a franchise QB. Krieg started all 16 games in 1995, passing for 3,553 yards (his best total since 1985) and 16 touchdowns (his most since 1989). However, he also led the league in interceptions with 21 and took a league-leading 53 sacks. The Cardinals wound up 4-12 on the season, their 18th full 16-game season in a row missing the postseason.

6. Boomer Esaison

Years as a Cardinal: 1996
Awards & achievements:

NFL MVP (1988)
4-time Pro Bowler

Iconic moment: Esiason had one of the best passing performances in NFL history on November 10, 1996, throwing for 522 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Cardinals’ 37-34 overtime win against Washington.

Like Krieg before him, Norman “Boomer” Esiason already had a successful NFL run before joining the Cardinals in the twilight of his career, which included a trip to the 1989 Super Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals. He makes the list because he was a great NFL quarterback — just not with the Cardinals. Esiason signed with the Cards in 1996 and started eight games in an injury-riddled season. He went 3-5 as the starter, amassing 2,293 yards and 11 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. He is notable in Cardinals history for being the team’s last in a carousel of passers before a two-decade stretch of relative stability at the position.

5. Neil Lomax

Years as a Cardinal: 1981-1988 (one season in Arizona)
Awards & achievements:

Two-time Pro Bowler
Led the league in passing yards (1987)

Iconic moment: In the Cardinals’ final season in St. Louis, Lomax engineered a comeback for the ages, leading the team to a 31-28 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Lomax tossed 3 TDs as the Cards scored 25 points in the fourth quarter.

Neil Lomax makes the list because he spent his entire eight-year career with the Cardinals — even if only one of them was in the desert. Lomax, the No. 33 overall pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1981, played in 108 games for the franchise (second all-time behind Jim Hart in the 1960s and ’70s), leading it to one playoff appearance, in the strike-shortened 1982 season. Lomax’s first year in Arizona was also his last season in the league — and it wasn’t a disaster. In 14 starts, he threw for 3,395 yards and a positive touchdown-to-interception ratio (20-to-11). Lomax missed the 1989 season due to injury and called it a career at age 31 with lingering hip issues. But, with a 47-52-2 career record with the Cardinals, he legitimately can be called one of the franchise’s all-time greats.

4. Jake Plummer

Years as a Cardinal: 1997-2002
Awards & achievements: Pro Bowler (2005)
Iconic moment: Plummer threw for 465 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 35-28 loss to the Cowboys.

Jake “The Snake” Plummer was the team’s first homegrown hero in the desert-based Cardinals era. A native of Idaho, Plummer excelled at Arizona State University (where the Cardinals played their home games until moving to suburban Glendale in 2006) leading the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl in 1996. The Cardinals drafted him No. 42 overall, and he took over the starting job in Week 8. The Cardinals were bad (4-12), but Plummer was good, finishing third in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. In his second season, Plummer led Arizona to its first winning record (9-7) since 1984 and first playoff win since 1948, when they were the Chicago Cardinals. Success was fleeting, however. Even though Plummer was the starter for more seasons, the team never again sniffed the postseason with Plummer. Still, he’s third all-time on the team’s games-played and passing yardage lists (through October 13, 2024) and is fondly remembered for reviving (albeit briefly) a moribund franchise.

3. Kyler Murray

Years as a Cardinal: 2019-present
Awards & achievements:

Heisman Trophy (2018)
Offensive Rookie of the Year (2019)
2-time Pro Bowler

Iconic moment: In Week 14 of the 2020 season, Murray threw for 406 yards in a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. He passed for 3 TDs and rushed for another.

After mostly fruitful runs with Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer, the Cardinals and their fans finally got intermittent tastes of success, setting up new expectations for the franchise. When they got the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft after a bleak post-Palmer season in which they went 3-13, the Cardinals selected Kyler Murray, an electrifying star in college. Murray did not disappoint in his rookie season, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year after passing for 3,772 yards and 20 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 544 yards and 4 touchdowns. Though the team went 5-10-1, it appeared the Cardinals had their first true franchise quarterback since Plummer in the 1990s.

After a strong Pro Bowl season in Year 2, he led the Cardinals to an 11-6 record and an ugly playoff loss to division rivals the Rams. The team rewarded Murray with a five-year, $251 million extension that will keep him under team control through 2028. The next two years were marked by injuries and a 6-13 record with Murray as the starter. Through October 13, 2024, the Cardinals were 2-4, with fans wondering whether they’d already seen the best Murray has to offer.

READ NEXT: Top 10 Candidates for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year

2. Carson Palmer

Years as a Cardinal: 2013-2017
Awards & achievements:

3-time Pro Bowler
Runner-up for league MVP (2015)
Arizona Cardinals Ring of Honor

Iconic moment: Palmer threw for 349 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Cardinals’ 26-20 win over the Packers in the 2015 NFC divisional round. It was Palmer’s only postseason win of his career.

Palmer was already a 10-year veteran when the Cardinals dealt two sixth-round picks to the Raiders to acquire him in 2013. Expectations were low with a journeyman leading the offense, but Palmer orchestrated a 10-6 record in first year as a Cardinal. Dealing with injuries in Year 2, he won all six games he started but missed the second half of the season with a torn ACL. He came back healthy in 2015 to lead what might be the best Cardinals squad in the franchise’s history.

Palmer was a league MVP candidate (4,671 yards, 35 TDs, 11 INTs), and with a 13-3 record and first-round bye in the NFC playoffs, the Cardinals were legitimate Super Bowl contenders. After knocking off the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round, Palmer laid an egg in the NFC championship game, tossing 4 interceptions in a 49-15 blowout by the Carolina Panthers. He put up respectable numbers the following year, but the team missed the playoffs. An injury limited Palmer to only seven games in 2017, and he announced his retirement at the end of the season at age 37, but not before quarterbacking the team’s best three-season stretch in the desert.

1. Kurt Warner

Years as a Cardinal: 2005-2009
Awards & achievements:

Pro Football Hall of Famer
Two-time NFL MVP (1999, 2001)
Super Bowl champ (2000)
One of only two players with 100 touchdown passes for two teams (Fran Tarkenton)

Warner led the St. Louis Rams (known as “The Greatest Show on Turf” that season) to the 2000 Super Bowl, where they beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16 on 414-yard, 2-touchdown performance.

One of football’s great feel-good stories, Warner was on the supposed tail end of his remarkable career when the Cardinals signed him in 2005 on a one-year deal, presumably as a placeholder until the next franchise QB arrived. The following season, he was benched in Week 4 for a rookie, first-round draft pick Matt Leinart, and it looked as though Warner’s Cinderella ride as a star had run its course.

However, in 2007, the Cardinals replaced Leinart with Warner and thus began a two-season stretch that culminated in Warner’s third career Super Bowl appearance. In 2008, at age 37, Warner passed for 4,583 yards and 30 touchdowns against 14 interceptions as the Cards went only 9-7 yet staged a postseason run in which Warner threw for over 1,000 yards and a record 11 touchdown passes. In the Super Bowl, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Warner had a 377-yard, 3-touchdown performance that came up just short in the game’s closing seconds. He came back for one more go, leading the Cards back to the playoffs, where they come short in the divisional round against the New Orleans Saints. He retired a month later as the undeniable greatest quarterback in Cardinals history.

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