Miami Dolphins quarterback Daunte Culpepper is in NFL limbo. He’s still under contract, but the Dolphins have locked him out of their practice facilities. Culpepper is protesting the team’s actions, an arbitration hearing is scheduled for June 29, and he is expected to win his grievance and become an unrestricted free agent.

When that happens, the Jets should offer him a contract.

Chad Pennington will, unquestionably, be the Jets’ starter when training camp opens in late July, and he should be: He had a careerhigh 3,352 passing yards in 2006, led the team to an unexpected playoff berth, and stayed healthy for 16 games, winning the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award in the process.

But Pennington’s injury history makes it unrealistic for anyone to be certain he’ll start 16 games again. Pennington has had multiple surgeries on his throwing shoulder, and that ailing shoulder caused him to miss 16 of the Jets’ 32 games in 2004 and 2005. The Jets are good enough to return to the playoffs this year, and they shouldn’t head into the season needing the untested backups Kellen Clemens and Marques Tuiasosopo to take over if Pennington injures his shoulder again.

With Culpepper as Pennington’s backup, the Jets wouldn’t have to worry that they were one Pennington shoulder injury away from having their season implode before their eyes. Culpepper isn’t the star he was a couple of years ago, but he’s a capable enough quarterback that he could take over the team if Pennington got hurt.

And even though Culpepper is a three-time Pro Bowler, the Jets would be able to sign him without breaking the bank. Culpepper, who doesn’t have an agent, has indicated in his public comments since the Dolphins sealed his fate by acquiring quarterback Trent Green that he’s looking more for the best fit than for the best contract.

The right fit is exactly what Culpepper needs. As recently as 2004, he was one of the league’s elite quarterbacks, leading the league with 4,717 passing yards for the Minnesota Vikings, adding 406 yards rushing and throwing for 39 touchdowns with just 11 interceptions. Had it not been for Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning setting a new NFL record for touchdown passes, Culpepper would have been the league MVP that year.

But everything has gone wrong for Culpepper since then, and no one thinks the 2004 version of Culpepper is likely to reappear. His 2005 season got off to a rocky start, and just when he appeared to be turning things around, he suffered a serious knee injury and was lost for the season. Minnesota traded him to Miami in 2006, and he again struggled on the field before an injury shortened his season. At this point, there’s not a single NFL team that would hand a starting job to Culpepper.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are generally regarded as the favorites to acquire Culpepper once he becomes a free agent, in large part because Culpepper’s coach in Minnesota, Mike Tice, is now the Jaguars’ assistant head coach. But Culpepper’s primary goal should be going to a team where he’ll have a chance of getting on the field, and the Jaguars aren’t the right team. Although the Jaguars’ starting quarterback, Byron Leftwich, has some of the same durability issues as Pennington, Culpepper might have trouble beating out David Garrard, who started 10 games in Leftwich’s place last year, for the backup job in Jacksonville. Culpepper would be foolish to sign anywhere that he might be relegated to third string.

With the Jets, Culpepper would be the backup, Clemens would be the third quarterback, and Tuiasosopo probably wouldn’t make the roster. Culpepper would give the Jets the best second-string quarterback they have had in years. Culpepper is significantly better than the backups the Jets had from 2003 to 2005, when Pennington entered each season as the starter but missed playing time all three years. In those years, the Jets’ backups were a 40-something Vinny Testaverde, Quincy Carter, Jay Fiedler, and Brooks Bollinger. No matter how much Culpepper has declined from his Pro Bowl 2004 season, he’s a better option than any of them were.

And it’s possible that Culpepper hasn’t declined as much as most league observers think. He was great in 2004 — only two NFL teams, the Colts and the New England Patriots, could have been as confident in their quarterback as the Vikings were — and not all the problems in Minnesota and Miami the last two years were his fault. Both teams had problems on the offensive line and weak running games, putting Culpepper in a position in which he thought he had to do everything himself.

On the Jets, Culpepper would be asked to do what Pennington did so well last year: Manage the game and avoid mistakes. It’s easy to envision Culpepper playing like Pennington because both quarterbacks are 30 years old and have reached the point in their careers when they understand that quarterback play is at least as much mental as it is physical.

For the Jets, the best-case scenario is that Pennington is as healthy in 2007 as he was in 2006. If that doesn’t happen, Culpepper would be a perfect Plan B.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com