Some quotes on Leinart

[RFIP]

"I don't think anyone could have expected any more," said Kurt Warner, Arizona's starter, who two years ago helped break in Eli Manning with the New York Giants. "I thought he did a great job in the 2-minute drill. He handled the situation well."

"I thought he did a great job," the two-time Super Bowl MVP said of the rookie. "He's a big strong kid. What impressed me was that he had such excellent scrambling ability. I remember when I was a rookie. There's so much to learn and he's coming in with just four days practice, which makes it doubly tough."

When Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked about Leinart, he replied: "I liked the way our quarterback from USC played."

Leinart on Cassel:
"I was happy for him," said Leinart. "We're good friends and we talked a couple of times last week. He showed he can be an NFL player."

 

[D-Dogg]

When Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked about Leinart, he replied: "I liked the way our quarterback from USC played."

Then he frowned and went on hating the world, his super bowl rings and everything that he could think of.

 

[bigredjane]

Great--

Then he frowned and went on hating the world, his super bowl rings and everything that he could think of.

Insight!!

 

[PJ1]

Then he frowned and went on hating the world, his super bowl rings and everything that he could think of.

He thinks he's Norman Einstein.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Peter King weighs in...

6. I think I really liked what I saw in Matt Leinart on Saturday night after only two full practices with the Cardinals following his long holdout. Against a relentless New England pass rush, he drove the previously scoreless Cards to a field goal just before halftime, taking the field for the first time as an NFL player for a two-minute drill. On the first play, he checked down and threw to running back J.J. Arrington for 11 yards, then found Carlyle Holiday over the middle for a quick three. Then LeRon McCoy dropped a first-down conversion. On his fourth play, he pumped once, slid out of the grasp of blitzing defensive back Chad Scott, juked up the middle and ran for 16. One play later, chased again, he looked at one receiver, then another, and with both covered, ran again, this time for 13 yards. Very good presence. No fear. Confident decision-making. I'd like to see him in the pocket when he's got some protection, because when it all broke down, he had his wits about him on every play

 

[D-Dogg]

Very good presence. No fear. Confident decision-making. I'd like to see him in the pocket when he's got some protection, because when it all broke down, he had his wits about him on every play

My thoughts exactly. He knew precisely what he was doing, no second guessing and all action all the time. I loved what I saw from Matt with just a tiny bit of work in practice.

Mid season when he's needed, the guy WILL come through. Take it to the bank.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I thought that was a pretty good line from Belichick. He had a point, too. His qb did play quite well.

 

[lobo]

He thinks he's Norman Einstein.

who he??? do you mean norman bates??

 

[kerouac9]

The best think about Leinart is that you could watch the guy go through his progressions. You never, ever saw that from Josh McCown. Maybe he did it, but you never saw it like that.

As Matt learns, he'll start watching the defenses instead of his receivers, but it was very promising.

 

[Pariah]

The best think about Leinart is that you could watch the guy go through his progressions. You never, ever saw that from Josh McCown. Maybe he did it, but you never saw it like that.

McCown was so good that he hid his progression reads from the defense. In fact, the ruse went so far as throwing to the wrong receiver in the wrong spot so that the defenses wouldn't know what to expect from him. He was the master of catching defenses off-guard like that.

 

[abomb]

He was the master of catching defenses off-guard like that.

And offenses as well.

 

[Jttsaz]

Just out of curiosity..does anyone remember Jakes first playing time? I remember the Cards were losing to the Eagles in Philly and had just gotten the ball on thier own 3 yardline..in comes Jake and proceeds to drive the team 97 yards and a TD..

 

[Mulli]

Just out of curiosity..does anyone remember Jakes first playing time? I remember the Cards were losing to the Eagles in Philly and had just gotten the ball on thier own 3 yardline..in comes Jake and proceeds to drive the team 97 yards and a TD..

Good times good times.

 

[Russ Smith]

The best think about Leinart is that you could watch the guy go through his progressions. You never, ever saw that from Josh McCown. Maybe he did it, but you never saw it like that.

As Matt learns, he'll start watching the defenses instead of his receivers, but it was very promising.

Yep that first pass to JJ I'm pretty sure JJ wasn't the primary target. If he was, matt looked off the safety quite well.

I thought in the last 2 drives Matt showed his inexperience and lack of practice, but the first couple of drives you could see how smart this kid really is.

It's frightening that Navarre played nearly all 4 years as a starter in a high profile Michigan program, and has been Denny's pet project for 3 camps now, and still looks THAT bad. The best play he had in the game was the INT because Leckey caused the fumble and we gained yards out of it. Matt has 2 practices and looks light years ahead of Navarre, did the lack of reps in practice this week really make THAT big of an impact on Navarre?

 

[D-Dogg]

Yep that first pass to JJ I'm pretty sure JJ wasn't the primary target. If he was, matt looked off the safety quite well.

I thought in the last 2 drives Matt showed his inexperience and lack of practice, but the first couple of drives you could see how smart this kid really is.

It's frightening that Navarre played nearly all 4 years as a starter in a high profile Michigan program, and has been Denny's pet project for 3 camps now, and still looks THAT bad. The best play he had in the game was the INT because Leckey caused the fumble and we gained yards out of it. Matt has 2 practices and looks light years ahead of Navarre, did the lack of reps in practice this week really make THAT big of an impact on Navarre?

Navarre has a lot of physical tools, but the dude simply can NOT read a defense for crap. He was throwing great looking balls into coverages with an under and over defender before the reciever even broke. It was painful to watch, not for the results really but for the absolutely terrible decision making.

I have given John the benefit of the doubt from day one, but I'm officially off that train completely; he doesn't have the decision making skills to be a starter in this league, or even a solid backup. In Matt's first drives he showed more decision making skills and leadership than John has in his entire NFL career...and that's not just because I am a huge Leinart jocker, because I've been vocally pulling for Navarre. It's because it's the truth.

 

[kerouac9]

I thought in the last 2 drives Matt showed his inexperience and lack of practice, but the first couple of drives you could see how smart this kid really is.

Yeah, think that Belichek opened up the playbook a little more to see what his backup LBs could do, and suddenly Matt looked confused because he was seeing things that he wasn't prepared for and had never, ever seen before. That, and his offensive line suddenly broke down when the second team came in there for real.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yeah, think that Belichek opened up the playbook a little more to see what his backup LBs could do, and suddenly Matt looked confused because he was seeing things that he wasn't prepared for and had never, ever seen before. That, and his offensive line suddenly broke down when the second team came in there for real.

And we have to remember Matt knew what 8 plays they said? You can only put together so many drives on 8 plays before even in a preseason game someone is just going to stop you cold. I doubt Matt knew formations either.

Although did you notice Sterling Sharpe point out a play he thought Matt had audibled and said "boy I didn't expect that?" How many NFL rookie QB's are comfortable enough to audible in their first game, let alone with a few practices under their belts?

Matt's got the head to be a great QB, just a matter of time and staying healthy. He has some things to learn, he'll discover you can't put as much air on the ball in the NFL for example, but he has a chance to be pretty special. If you saw the pre game they showed some clips and Mariucci talked about him. There was one completion perfectly thrown into double coverage where Mariucci said "in the NFL you can't throw into bracketed coverage like you can in college, he'll learn that." I found myself having Jake flashbacks at that point, 6 years of saying "he'll learn he can't throw that." My guess is Matt actually will learn and probably by next year sometime. I don't expect we'll have anywhere near the learning curve with Leinart we did with Plummer, much better head for the game, and with much better coaches and support system in place than Jake had.

 

[kerouac9]

And we have to remember Matt knew what 8 plays they said? You can only put together so many drives on 8 plays before even in a preseason game someone is just going to stop you cold. I doubt Matt knew formations either.

Although did you notice Sterling Sharpe point out a play he thought Matt had audibled and said "boy I didn't expect that?" How many NFL rookie QB's are comfortable enough to audible in their first game, let alone with a few practices under their belts?

Matt's got the head to be a great QB, just a matter of time and staying healthy. He has some things to learn, he'll discover you can't put as much air on the ball in the NFL for example, but he has a chance to be pretty special. If you saw the pre game they showed some clips and Mariucci talked about him. There was one completion perfectly thrown into double coverage where Mariucci said "in the NFL you can't throw into bracketed coverage like you can in college, he'll learn that." I found myself having Jake flashbacks at that point, 6 years of saying "he'll learn he can't throw that." My guess is Matt actually will learn and probably by next year sometime. I don't expect we'll have anywhere near the learning curve with Leinart we did with Plummer, much better head for the game, and with much better coaches and support system in place than Jake had.

When Matt audibled on that play, I got goosebumps. Everyone on the field looked a little shocked. I hadn't been that excited about a pre-snap adjustment in a long, long time. Maybe ever.

 

[Mulli]

Anyone know what happened on the play when he audibled?

 

[CaptTurbo]

Anyone know what happened on the play when he audibled?

I belive it was a run for like 3 yards. Either that or a dropped pass.

 

[ActingWild]

Anyone know what happened on the play when he audibled?

Yeah, he hit a wide open Eric Edwards who proceeded to drop the ball. Can't catch them all, I realize, but the call was perfect, and the pass was right there. Would have been a 1st down.

Also, by my count he had 2 passes that were right on the money that the receivers flat out dropped. His stat line could easily have been 6-11 with 67yards passing.

 

[Duckjake]

Also, by my count he had 2 passes that were right on the money that the receivers flat out dropped. His stat line could easily have been 6-11 with 67yards passing.

It didn't help any that the spare receivers never reacted to the blitzes and just kept running downfield without looking back as the ball went sailing by.

 

[JeffGollin]

Navarre has a lot of physical tools, but the dude simply can NOT read a defense for crap.

That wasn't John Navarre; that was a cardboard cutout of him out there. It's amazing it didn't disintegrate in the rain at Foxboro.

 

[Russ Smith]

It didn't help any that the spare receivers never reacted to the blitzes and just kept running downfield without looking back as the ball went sailing by.

Yep, in college he played with Kareem Kelly, Keary Colbert, Mike Williams, Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith, guys like Holliday etc are not what he's used to playing with in terms of experience.

But I was impressed with Matt overall, considering how little reps he'd had in camp it was pretty nice to see him do as well as he did.

 

[gusmahler]

Yep that first pass to JJ I'm pretty sure JJ wasn't the primary target. If he was, matt looked off the safety quite well.

On the Cardinals Live show, Leinart said that JJ wasn't his primary receiver on that play.

He also said he only had that one audible. (They asked if he did any more audibles).

(He even took the blame for receiver's drops. I forget which one, but he said it was a bad throw even as they were showing the replay with the ball thrown right to the receiver's hands.)