The game may be meaningless for many people, even players on this team. But the game is far far from meaningless from Matt Leinart. For him, this is just like playoffs and the SB are for Kurt Warner. He has finally the chance to step in and show who he is and that he has improved, late in the season against a very hot playoff team that plays its best. For him, the game is as meaningful as they can be and that's what counts in the discussion. The excuse for not performing well because this is "exhibition game" is not a good one if you ask me.
Matt Lainart doesn't understand the game well enough. He doesn't make the correct reads. In any system, wheter it is spread or pro set based, this causes big troubles. This has nothing to do with formations, important vs. bad games, or gameplans. Often times he had basic simple reads, options, that even average NFL QB's would consistently make, yet he makes the wrong decision. He works only on plays that are designed to maximize the availability of the first read and that don't involve too much read progression. But you can't run an entire gameplan and offense like that and expect to be good in NFL. And if you do, all QB's in the league would be able to play that position.
He has below average accuracy and not only this game, but that is the reality in all his games. It showed all game long, even on simple screen throws to WR's, he overthrew them etc. . That has nothing to do with anything else than him not performing well. When you are inaccurate as that, you can't be a good NFL QB. You can't even be a backup in that case.
Many mention a weak arm. I don't see that necessary and strong arm is also heavely overrated. I see an inaccurate passer that has weak ability to make good reads and time his passes despite 4 years of practice. Curtis Painter, as a rookie, and 5th round selection, is making better reads and throws more accurate in an even more complicated offense. Not that he is good, but he will be a better QB than Leinart. Weak arm is the worst argument against a QB. Look at Chad Pennington that has everything else than a strong arm. Then look at strong arm QB's like Jamarcus Russel that posses strong arm but nothing else. This is about understanding the offense. It's much more complicated than in college. To time your throws you have to grasp the game and make the right reads. And you have to throw with extreme accuracy. Leinart does both things wrong. Either he makes the right read and makes an innacurate pass. Or he makes the bad read. Or both. In either case, it's a problem. He looks good when defenses gives up the first read as an easy pass. In that case, every NFL QB or backup looks good. That's easy. But once it starts to get bit complicated in reads and progressions and making difficult throws, he just can't be in the game at all.
I don't want him, even as a backup, I think that you need a very good backup QB to make you a complete team. Didn't like him coming out of college, and I don't like him now either. He is not the definition of a tough smart football player. In college, all that works fine, especially on a team that has much more telented players than other teams and coaching staff and playcallers as well. In NFL, it's much more close, and you need a tougher and smarter and more accurate QB to make it work.
I don't happen to respect draft positions at all, so this is why I have labeled him as bust from begining and still am. I don't care if he is selected first overall or in the seventh round and what his college stats are. All that doesn't matter at all. He is a member of this team and the past is the past.
He may end up as an average NFL QB after many many years of investment and similar path as now and many failures. It's simply not worth all that to reach that point. He will never become an elite QB with the mental aspects of the game he now has. I want Cardinals to have an very good QB. Look arround and see which teams end up in playoffs year after year: Those that have great QB's. We have had an alite QB two years in a row and we are in playoffs two years in a row.
If he made better reads and was accurate, everything else was correctable. But as it stands now, his highest potential, if he ever reaches that, is being an average NFL QB, and I even doubt that alot. He may even win the superbowl, Dilfer did it, as long as he plays on a team that is superb at everything else. But you want your QB to be superb, to make it so much easier for others. Warner does that right now, and we need to acquire a new QB this offseason that is that or has that potential. Not only is Leinart far away from that, I don't even see the potential. It's sad that i have to be critical as this on one of our players, but that's how i see it, and progressing too much just because he was a 1st round selection can hurt this team. If he was a 6th round pick, he would have been released long time ago i believe. We would have drafted someone else.
. I knew there had to be one of them out there. Rivers came to mind but i don't think he played in a true spread offense. He threw alot but it was more of a short passing game offense and not the 4-5 WR spread'em out offense.
