The Arizona Cardinals find themselves in a very tough situation at quarterback at the present time. They started Ryan Lindley against the Seattle Seahawks and will start rookie Logan Thomas in their regular season finale this weekend in San Francisco.

But it appears that the next weekend, when the Cardinals will likely travel to play either the Carolina Panthers or Atlanta Falcons in the first round of the playoffs, they will not have to rely on either Lindley or Thomas. Drew Stanton is expected to be back.

Arizona head coach Bruce Arians met with the media on Monday and, when asked about Drew Stanton's potential return, said, "I have very, very high optimism because he wants to be ready." Arians indicated that were it not for a "minor setback last week" Stanton would have been on the field against the Seahawks.

Stanton's knee had some swelling after getting some practice work in last Thursday, "but it went right away."

"We don't want to have another setback," said Arians. "He'll work into practice some this week and get some action in practice."

Arizona has struggled mightily on offense since Stanton went down. The offense mustered only six points against Seattle and three after Stanton went down against St. Louis, and that was after Stanton had gotten the team into field goal range before the sack that sent Stanton to the locker room.

Stanton's return would at least give Arizona a decent shot at moving on in the postseason. Most feel they would have zero shot of moving on with either Lindley or Thomas starting in the postseason.