Posted in The Soapbox
4 comments
08/31 2010

Shane Bacon: It’s True; Matt Leinart is in a Win-Win Situation

Posted by Shane Bacon.

Last winter, when Kurt Warner decided he’d had enough football for one aging man, the Arizona Cardinals had to do the disappointing but inevitable task of handing Matt Leinart the keys to their offense. Not an easy move considering Leinart’s career passer rating is just north of the 70 mark and that he has six more interceptions than touchdowns, but the kid, we were told, is supposed to be a star and that was now his role.

But, if you’ve watched any preseason football at all, you know he probably isn’t. So, that is exactly where my point is made; Leinart is now in a win-win situation as a quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. I know, I know, you probably are shaking your head with that thought, but hear me out. This is a guy who might not even start over Derek Anderson come September 12, but his lack of ability since entering the league in 2006 actually helps him here. No Cardinals fan can actually think he will do anything else but fail, and if failing is what he succeeds at in 2010, everyone will just agree that he isn’t any good and move on.

Now, say he comes in after a few games, and decides to play well. He goes out and completes passes to the talented receiving core he has, and makes some good decisions and gets the Cardinals offense rolling. Imagine all of that happens. How is Leinart not the hero of the desert, joining the ranks of Charles Barkley, Luiz Gonzalez, and Larry Fitzgerald?

“I feel like I’ve outplayed the competition, training camp, preseason,” Leinart told reporters Monday after practice. “I think my play speaks about that. For me, this goes beyond the football field.”

The funny thing is, nobody knows what the hell he is talking about when he says “beyond the football field.” He’s a guy that seems to love his life off the turf and enjoy the life on it, and for that the general public doesn’t expect much.

For Cardinals fans, until Leinart actually leaps to his potential (and it should be noted that maybe the USC quarterback who was surrounded by all that incredible talent and won a Heisman Trophy in 2006 was just a pawn to his more talented kings and queens), no matter what he does, we will expect him to fail.

For that, the expectations are low, so maybe, just maybe, the party dude will do something to surprise us in 2010, and actually be good. Or at least better than we expect.

(Shane Bacon writes at Dogs That Chase Cars and contributes to Yahoo!)

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Posted on August 31, 2010 at 3:05PM

 

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  1. Dave
    08/31 2010

    As an Arizona fan I disagree with you. You have not watched one Cardinals pre-season game I am willing to bet. The media is the only one saying Matt can’t play. What team wouldn’t want a guy completing 82%+ of his passes with no turnovers in the pre-season as a starter. A guy who is mistake free. All of the sudden the media has turned into Al Davis and thinks a QB has to chuck 40 yd bombs in every game.

  2. jef
    08/31 2010

    Dave,

    I am a season ticket holder and am really hoping to have Max Hall be the starting QB. I expect that our team would probably miss the playoffs with this happening (although not certain). At least it would be beneficial for the future. I also don’t believe either of the other guys will take us to the playoffs. Leinart is not a good quarterback just because he has a high completion percentage. By constantly dumping the ball off, he has kept his rating high, but he cannot move the ball down the field. Anderson at least moves the ball. The problem with Anderson is that he will lose the team games where Leinart might not have. Reality is, with Leinart, they wouldn’t have had the chance to win in the first place as a result of his shortcomings.

  3. Matt
    08/31 2010

    You didn’t mention Nash in the list of heroes… WTF…

  4. Gunaxin Fantasy Football ~ WTFIT | Gunaxin Sports
    08/31 2010

    [...] just lose Boldin. They also lost Kurt Warner and now it appears they want to lose Matt Leinart (apparently he’s so inept the Card would rather opt for guy who couldn’t make the grade o…). That leaves any and all receivers in the desert without a quarterback, and if in case you [...]