ARIZONA CARDINALS CUT QB MATT LEINART

During his college years at USC, Matt Leinart was a Heisman Trophy winner and two time National Champion.  Things haven’t gone as well during his NFL career.  In three years he’s gone from a high draft pick expected to be the Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback of the future, to someone the team considered completely expendable.  This weekend, the Cardinals released Leinart outright and left the former Arizona starting quarterback unemployed as a free agent.   Leinart wasn’t out of work for long, signing with the Houston Texans, but he’s currently the #3 QB on the depth chart behind Matt Schaub and Dan Orlovsky.

Leinart was selected by Arizona with the #10 pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, and the Cards thought he’d be their quarterback of the future.  Leinart took over the starting QB job as a rookie but suffered a broken collarbone early in the 2007 NFL campaign.  Veteran Kurt Warner took over, and revived the team as he recaptured the All Pro form from his days with the St. Louis Rams.  After recovering from his injury, Leinart started only one game. With Warner's retirement, he expected to battle free agent Derek Anderson for the starting job.  Instead, non-football issues with head coach Ken Whisenhunt soured his relationship with the coach to the point where it was beyond repair.  Whisenhunt had a lot to say in announcing the Leinart release on Saturday:

"In fairness to Matt, I think that it would be a tough position for him to be in a backup role. Maybe a fresh start for him is what would be a good thing, for all of us."

"Do I feel like we didn't put him in a position to be successful? I think that is open to debate. It has obviously been talked about a lot. I think that with every player on our team we are trying to give him the opportunity to succeed. I think we have always tried to be fair."

"The one thing I want to make very clear is how professional Matt was about the whole situation. I was very impressed with his conversation with me. He thanked the organization, the ownership, for all the time and effort that they had invested in him. He felt like he had gotten better and he had learned a lot and it meant a lot to me to hear him say that."

Ultimately, Whisenhunt said, the Cardinals’ offense seemed to play harder for Anderson than Leinart:

"A lot of it is how his teammates respond to him and the confidence they have in him when he goes into the huddle. When he came out the other night and completed his first two passes on big plays, the guys rallied around him and that is what you like to see."

At this point, Leinart is back to square one in his NFL career.  While he’s behind a very durable and talented quarterback in starter Schaub, with a few breaks he could quickly move up the depth chart to the backup position.  Having signed a one year deal, he can explore job options elsewhere after the season.