ESPN Insider: Brian Hoyer ‘could be a starting quarterback’ in the NFL

For the first time in franchise history Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals will start their fourth quarterback of the season in the team’s 2012 finale against the San Francisco 49ers.

The latest winner in Arizona’s season-long quarterback shuffle is 27-year-old Brian Hoyer.

Hoyer, who signed with the Cardinals on December 10, will get the starting nod at quarterback against the league’s fourth-ranked pass defense. While Sunday will mark his first career start under center, one ESPN Insider thinks the move is a logical one for Ken Whisenhunt and Co.

“I actually have seen a lot of Hoyer in a lot of preseason games with the New England Patriots, and I like what I saw,” Ron Jaworksi told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns & Gambo Thursday. “I just got done watching the Chicago game…and I thought Hoyer handled [the pressure put on by the Bears defense] pretty well.

“Obviously, he doesn’t fully understand the Cardinals’ system, where a player’s going to be or what the adjustments are, but I thought there was a look of an NFL quarterback.”

The look of an NFL quarterback has largely been missing with the Cardinals since Kevin Kolb went down with a season-ending injury in the team’s loss to the Buffalo Bills on October 14. Arizona’s offense is currently ranked last in the league in yards per game (263.1) and hasn’t recorded a passing touchdown since Week 9 in Green Bay.