Leinart and Whisenhunt clear the air; QB reportedly on trading block
Matt Leinart’s days in Arizona may be coming to an end pretty soon as the Cardinals have explored the possibility of trading the quarterback. Reports surfaced that the Cardinals are looking around the league to see what Leinart’s trade value would possibly be. Leinart was the Cards’ first-round pick in 2006. He was expected to start this season after Kurt Warner retired in Janury but the transition has not been easy.
Leinart has had a rough pre-season as he has lost the starting job to Derek Anderson, at least for now. Coach Ken Whisenhunt inserted Anderson as the starter in last week’s pre-season game and has already confirmed that Anderson will start in the team’s final pre-season game on Thursday.
Whisenhunt met with Leinart as the two spoke about the team’s situation. Leinart complained earlier this week that he had outplayed his competition in training camp and preseason and deserved to be the starter. He acknowledged that his problem with his coach probably “goes beyond football.” Whisenhunt said that the talk served both sides well.
"We obviously touched base on where everything was, which I've always said I wanted," Whisenhunt said. "If players have an issue or a problem, they need to come see me. We had communicated before about where we were, and, obviously, we needed to talk a little bit more, but it was a good talk."
Leinart has not panned out thus far as the quarterback the Cardinals hoped he’d be. Don’t forget that Leinart was drafted before the Whisnehunt regime. It’s always been the case that he’s more suited for a short passing game rather than the west coast offence of Whisenhunt, which aims to stretch out the field and use a longer passing game. Whisenhunt said to reporters after the talk with Leinart that he has never held anything personal against Leinart.
"I've always liked Matt," Whisenhunt said. "I think Matt is a tremendous person, and he's done a lot for this city and this community, but it's my job as the head coach of this team to pick the best players for our squad. I didn't think, as the pre-season progressed, that we were as efficient as we needed to be."
Leinart would likely not find a starting job right now if he were to be traded. Some teams who were interested include the New York Giants and the Oakland Raiders. Both teams are searching for veteran backups as the Giants lost Jim Sorgi for the season with a shoulder injury. It’s still not confirmed that the Cardinals would pull the trigger on a trade as they would be left with two rookie backups to Anderson with John Skeleton and Max Hall.
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