Expected Positives from Leinart

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Okay, we've been reading a lot of reports about how leinart's footwork looks great, or about how he's struggled on certain days. and we've discussed, ad nauseum, how he's not kurt warner. and we've likely dissected his faults to a . . . fault. what i'd like to see is a discussion of what we think leinart brings to the table that may change our offense.

as we all can agree, leinart was the beneficiary of a stellar run game at SC. as a result leinart ended up being well-schooled in the art of play action. he was a master of the big play in college not so much due to arm strength, but due to the strength of the run game and his run fakes sucking defenders in to get wide open wr's running down the field. warner a master-quarterback, but i don't think his play action was all that effective because everyone always believed he was going to pass. we might see more success with play action with matty at qb.

the draw will likely once again be a WEAPON in our arsenal, rather than just a play that goes for 1 yard or no gain. kurt seemed to take eons to get from under center to the rb on draws. i always expected our draws to net zero yards, and typically i was right. i think matty's ability to get the ball back to the rbs will allow for some potential big gainers.

the one positive of leinart that i've seen discussed is his RELATIVE mobility. what i mean is, leinart is not necessarily considered "nimble." he is, however, much more mobile than kurt. this will allow us to move the pocket a bit more, will allow for bootleg plays, and if a play breaks down and the middle of the field is wide open, matty could leg out a 9 yard run whereas it would likely be a 2 or 3 yard run with kurt. it's a small thing, but football can be a game of inches. all the little things count.

what else you got?

 

[Brighteyes]

Okay, we've been reading a lot of reports about how leinart's footwork looks great, or about how he's struggled on certain days. and we've discussed, ad nauseum, how he's not kurt warner. and we've likely dissected his faults to a . . . fault. what i'd like to see is a discussion of what we think leinart brings to the table that may change our offense.

as we all can agree, leinart was the beneficiary of a stellar run game at SC. as a result leinart ended up being well-schooled in the art of play action. he was a master of the big play in college not so much due to arm strength, but due to the strength of the run game and his run fakes sucking defenders in to get wide open wr's running down the field. warner a master-quarterback, but i don't think his play action was all that effective because everyone always believed he was going to pass. we might see more success with play action with matty at qb.

the draw will likely once again be a WEAPON in our arsenal, rather than just a play that goes for 1 yard or no gain. kurt seemed to take eons to get from under center to the rb on draws. i always expected our draws to net zero yards, and typically i was right. i think matty's ability to get the ball back to the rbs will allow for some potential big gainers.

the one positive of leinart that i've seen discussed is his RELATIVE mobility. what i mean is, leinart is not necessarily considered "nimble." he is, however, much more mobile than kurt. this will allow us to move the pocket a bit more, will allow for bootleg plays, and if a play breaks down and the middle of the field is wide open, matty could leg out a 9 yard run whereas it would likely be a 2 or 3 yard run with kurt. it's a small thing, but football can be a game of inches. all the little things count.

what else you got?

Who are you and what have you done with our Ouchie ?

 

[joeshmo]

the one positive of leinart that i've seen discussed is his RELATIVE mobility. what i mean is, leinart is not necessarily considered "nimble." he is, however, much more mobile than kurt. this will allow us to move the pocket a bit more, will allow for bootleg plays, and if a play breaks down and the middle of the field is wide open, matty could leg out a 9 yard run whereas it would likely be a 2 or 3 yard run with kurt. it's a small thing, but football can be a game of inches. all the little things count.

what else you got?

Concerning this, especially bootlegs, there is nothing more then a big 300+ pound DT hates then having to chase a QB who is rolling out or bootlegging it. Makes it easier in the 4th quarter on our OL being able to play against some DL who are a little more winded. Should make running the ball and finishing off games that much easier to do.

 

[imaCafan]

So what you are saying is we will have a more balanced attack, which is good. Some teams are best at shutting down the run, some at shutting down the pass. So if they focus on shutting down Fitz et. al. we can turn Beanie loose on them, and visa-versa....

 

[82CardsGrad]

Concerning this, especially bootlegs, there is nothing more then a big 300+ pound DT hates then having to chase a QB who is rolling out or bootlegging it. Makes it easier in the 4th quarter on our OL being able to play against some DL who are a little more winded. Should make running the ball and finishing off games that much easier to do.

I agree with this conceptuLLY. However, I am more than a little skeptical at this moment, with Matt being able to do this on a consistent basis. It takes confidence and a willingness to be hit at times. Matt still has some serious proving to do in these areas... at least for me.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Who are you and what have you done with our Ouchie ?

i thought this thread might shock people.

in fair disclosure, i was ecstatic (as was cheese) when we drafted leinart. i couldn't believe our luck. i thought we just drafted the next tom brady. granted, my enthusiasm has been tempered by his preseason performances and late-game-mop-up atrocities. but as i've always argued (and rarely been given credit for), i like to think myself a REALIST. when the team stinks, i say so. when a player stinks, i say so. unfortunately for a LOOOONG time (the majority of time most of y'all have been posting with me) there was a lot of stinking, so there was a lot of "say so" on my part. but when i see something good, i also recognize it. whiz has been terrific. i may have been critical of calls of his, but i've always been a big supporter. likewise the offense in general the last couple years. i'm quietly confident about this season. there are a lot of questions, but this coaching staff has earned my trust. so more positives are flowing from me as of late . . .

 

[SunsTzu]

what else you got?

Ball security. Warner averaged as many fumbles per year with the Cards as Leinart has in his entire career.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think Matt "allows" us to run a more balanced offense that Whiz wants to run. Warner was so good at what he did we were able to "get away with" throwing the ball all the time and in fact excelled at it. But even when we wanted to run the ball, we often had the issue of Kurt audibling to a pass or as you said taking so long on the handoffs on draws that the play was dead before the RB got the ball.

There is an interesting thing with Leinart that goes back to an article in SI
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20.../07/08/qb.rule/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

Basically the author talks about the "rule of 26-27-60" in predicting success for a college QB. 26 is the minimum score for a QB on the Wonderlic(Matt got 35), 27 is the minimum number of starts in college(Matt exceeded this) and 60 is completion percentage in college(Matt topped 60 all 3 seasons he played at USC). Obviously it hasn't yet translated into success for Matt but as always we have no idea how well he would have played if Kurt hadn't simply been so good. Matt had some success early, then the whole implosion after the Bears game screwed up the OC and the QB coach, and then Kurt just basically played like a HOF QB with 83 TD passes in his last 3 seasons which kept Matt on the bench.

If Matt can stay healthy I think he can still be a very good NFL QB.

 

[perivolaki]

I think Matty will utilize the TE more. I seem to remember him hitting the tight ends foe some big gains when he was the number 1 guy.

With Warner the tight ends seemed to be forgotten in the passing game and were there more to be extra blockers.

 

[splitsecond]

Play action, play action, play action. He was fantastic at it at USC, and much better than Warner. We will get some hard bites on that based on his skill alone, and then add in what should be a better run game with beanie, tim and a retooled OL, we will be seeing some big gains on play action passing.

 

[Buckybird]

17 games... thats all he's started!!! I think he will be very good.

Think back to 2006 & 2007 and the way the passing game clicked on play action & boots (pretty good for a rook). I remember some big plays and that was without much of a running game though we had Edge.

 

[PACardsFan]

Okay, we've been reading a lot of reports about how leinart's footwork looks great, or about how he's struggled on certain days. and we've discussed, ad nauseum, how he's not kurt warner. and we've likely dissected his faults to a . . . fault. what i'd like to see is a discussion of what we think leinart brings to the table that may change our offense.

as we all can agree, leinart was the beneficiary of a stellar run game at SC. as a result leinart ended up being well-schooled in the art of play action. he was a master of the big play in college not so much due to arm strength, but due to the strength of the run game and his run fakes sucking defenders in to get wide open wr's running down the field. warner a master-quarterback, but i don't think his play action was all that effective because everyone always believed he was going to pass. we might see more success with play action with matty at qb.

the draw will likely once again be a WEAPON in our arsenal, rather than just a play that goes for 1 yard or no gain. kurt seemed to take eons to get from under center to the rb on draws. i always expected our draws to net zero yards, and typically i was right. i think matty's ability to get the ball back to the rbs will allow for some potential big gainers.

the one positive of leinart that i've seen discussed is his RELATIVE mobility. what i mean is, leinart is not necessarily considered "nimble." he is, however, much more mobile than kurt. this will allow us to move the pocket a bit more, will allow for bootleg plays, and if a play breaks down and the middle of the field is wide open, matty could leg out a 9 yard run whereas it would likely be a 2 or 3 yard run with kurt. it's a small thing, but football can be a game of inches. all the little things count.

what else you got?

What else could we have? You've pretty much read my mind in finding positive Leinart attributes. Matt is really strong in the play action department. But, our running game has to pan out for that play action to be completely effective. I am confident it will. Leinart is sneaky mobile & I've seen him take off & get solid yardage. Not only was Kurt slow, but he had absolutely no wiggle whatsoever & couldn't even put a move on a 360 lb NT. Matt will be far better at making the first guy miss than Warner was. In fact, I'm not sure if Warner ever made the 1st guy miss....ever. Matt isn't Fran Tarkenton, but he'll seem like it compared to what we had with Kurt. I really, really think that Leinart will have a solid year & even be a force by seasons end. Only time will tell.

 

[splitsecond]

the team should just pay Steve Young to hang out with Matt 24/7. He certainly has the physical ability to play the way Steve did.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

the team should just pay Steve Young to hang out with Matt 24/7. He certainly has the physical ability to play the way Steve did.

whoa, whoa, whoa. that's waaay off. steve young was easily one of the FASTEST qb's in the league. matt's not in his league in terms of pure speed or even wiggle. young was considered close to an elite athlete.

 

[TJ]

17 games... thats all he's started!!! I think he will be very good.

Think back to 2006 & 2007 and the way the passing game clicked on play action & boots (pretty good for a rook). I remember some big plays and that was without much of a running game though we had Edge.

+1

Im looking for to Leinart version 2.0 this season. There's no reason why he shouldnt be better than the 2006 season.

 

[RonF]

I think Matt's maturity as a result of watching Kurt Warner's play and listening to Kurt's advise on how to quickly recognize the opponents defensive scheme. He should be capable of playing and reacting to various schemes instead of having to think about what to do in certain situations.

The only concern I have at this point of his development is that he doesn't hang his head when making a mistake but to shrug it off and continue to play at a high degree of confidence.

 

[kerouac9]

I think we'll see a less predictable offense under Matt. Once Warner re-established himself as the starter, there weren't those moments when we said, "Whoa, that was an awesome play call!" like we did in Whis's first season here. In part, that was because while Warner was excellent at executing his offense, there wasn't a lot of variety in what he was able to do--or what he wanted to do.

I think we'll see Matt executing Whis's offense a lot more, and I think that Whis is a more creative play-designer and -caller than we've seen the last couple years.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

from Urban:

A tidbit from quarterback Matt Leinart – he took his offensive linemen on a trip to Hawaii this offseason, helping the bonding effort. Yes, Leinart paid.

 

[Shane]

from Urban:

A tidbit from quarterback Matt Leinart – he took his offensive linemen on a trip to Hawaii this offseason, helping the bonding effort. Yes, Leinart paid.

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f4/nice-urban-blog-155546.html

 

[Cheesebeef]

from Urban:

A tidbit from quarterback Matt Leinart – he took his offensive linemen on a trip to Hawaii this offseason, helping the bonding effort. Yes, Leinart paid.

I liked reading this.

 

[CardLogic]

The only concern I have at this point of his development is that he doesn't hang his head when making a mistake but to shrug it off and continue to play at a high degree of confidence.

Agreed, he will have to have the confidence to rebound from a bad play or bad game; because they will occur; keep his head in the game and work through it. Matt, please pay no attention to the crowd...

 

[kerouac9]

I think Matt's maturity as a result of watching Kurt Warner's play and listening to Kurt's advise on how to quickly recognize the opponents defensive scheme. He should be capable of playing and reacting to various schemes instead of having to think about what to do in certain situations.

The only concern I have at this point of his development is that he doesn't hang his head when making a mistake but to shrug it off and continue to play at a high degree of confidence.

I'm almost more worried about his ability to stand up physically to the beating that this offensive line may force him to endure. His first two NFL seasons ended on injured reserve, after all.

It's difficult to say the amount of times that Kurt Warner was hit was based on the OL or Warner's willingness to not give up on a play until the very last moment, but we'll find out soon enough.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

from Urban:

A tidbit from quarterback Matt Leinart – he took his offensive linemen on a trip to Hawaii this offseason, helping the bonding effort. Yes, Leinart paid.

how many full pigs did lutui eat?

 

[Shane]

how many full pigs did lutui eat?

Maybe Lutui Wasnt there. Unless he took all the back ups too which Lutui currently is. Would be interesting to hear if he took all the back ups as well. Although Lutui is his college buddy so I'm sure he went.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

how many full pigs did lutui eat?

I guess we now know where the 396 came from...

(It's Matt's fault!)