Leinart is Toast
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Is it time to face the music?
Matt Leinart is still on the roster because Rod Graves' pride is wrapped up in him.
Leinart is being pushed on Whiz the way DC Clancy Pendergast was.
Whiz is trying to be a team player and give Leinart a chance...he's pampered him, coddled him, coached the heck out of him...all for little return.
As feared by many fans, Matt Leinart is not a fit in Whiz's offense.
First and foremeost, he's not a fit because he can't make all the throws in this offense. John Skelton showed in his brief cameo an ability to throw passes that Leinart cannot make.
Secondly, he is not a leader...some of his teammates actually have very little respect for him. They think he's a wuss.
Thirdly, he's a china doll.
Fourthly, he's a run and duck player, even after the games.
Whiz has never truly warmed up to Leinart. With respect to Rod Graves Whiz has tried to groom him...but had Whiz been the HC in 2006, Leinart would have never been a Cardinal.
Whiz has tipped his hand toward Derek Anderson in a couple of ways. One is he revealed to Adam Shefter his excitment about Anderson when he was caught off-guard during a golf trip to Florida. Two is how Whiz stayed with Anderson this past Saturday as long as it took to get him playing well. Whiz and Anderson both needed that.
During the week Whiz kept emphasizing that he wanted Anderson to play behind the starting line. Why such emphasis?
Anderson---very much in need of Whiz's coaching---has something that Leinart doesn't: the big arm.
He has one other uncanny thing going for him...he's never been sacked more that 14 times in a season.
On December 2, 2007 Whiz watched the worst and best of Derek Anderson right here in Glendale. After coughing up 14 quick points off an interception (71 yds. by Roderick Hood) and a lost fumble which led to a Warner to Pope TD, Anderson reeled off a 304 yard, 2 TD performance, which included a 67 yard TD to Braylon Edwards and nearly included a perfectly thrown 37 yard strike to Kellen Winslow Jr. on the last play of the game that should have been called a game-winning TD or at least a pass interference, as the Cardinal DB clearly hit Winslow before the ball arrived and pushed him out of bounds.
At that time, it was only the Browns' second lost in their last 7 games...and Anderson was heading to the Pro Bowl.
Whiz believes he can smooth out Anderson's rough spots and is confident that with the Cardinals' WRs, Anderson can deliver some big numbers.
It's that simple.
Almost.
What makes it even more simple is what just happened to the team's All-World WR Larry Fitzgerald. Leinart led him---in a pre-season game no less---right into the teeth of the tiger---which resulted in a catch, but a nasty hit that sprained Fitz's MCL...a similar play that cost Anquan Boldin the opportunity to play in the home playoff game versus the Packers.
Today, one of Fitz's greatest supporters and friends, Cris Carter, implied to the media that---even though Carter insists Fitz didn't say it directly (to cover for Fitz)---Fitz needs to play with a QB with a stronger arm and a stronger sense of how to protect him.
Here's what may happen very quickly: (1) the Cardinals may make a move to trade for another QB to add to the mix; or (2) Anderson gets the start versus the Bears in pre-season game 3 and never looks back, and (3) with John Skelton playing so well in Game 1, that Skelton wins the #2, with Max Hall as #3, and Leinart is sent packing.
Brace yourselves. This is already in the works.
