Matt Leinart is a quality young QB who got hurt last year after some system issues and an obvious offseason drinking problem. But he is more mobile, durable and turns the ball over less than Warner. That would be enough to warrant the starting job in itself, but he is also our potential franchise QB for the next 10 seasons.
Warner had a courageous season last year and a rehabilitation of sorts mentally. He still threw too many interceptions and in my view hurt the team with his constant pressure on the coaches to throw more. The Cardinals were *very* predictably forcing the ball downfield under Warner when there was not a need to do so. At Cleveland we had a first & 10 at midfield at a crucial moment in the game, and I said "20 yard pass over the middle, intercepted" and sure enough there it was. With Leinart we are able to establish the ground game and go play-action in both directions. That is in my opinion why Whis put Leinart into the Steelers game when he did. The running game and play-action was working but Warner would have had us chucking bombs at every opportunity.
Also, don't forget Warner does not have the durability nor the stamina (mental or physical) at this point to start 16 games and be effective and not be hurt. Whis was brilliant last year in using him as a George Blanda type no-huddle specialist, but not as a 60 minute starter.
Should we forget the 2006 season? As the team's then-appointed starter Warner was a bruised and beaten car wreck. His performance against the Rams was possibly the worst game played by any professional athlete in sports history, because it went beyond stats like "5 ints" or "zero passing yards" to being almost unreal or mutinous. Warner had what seemed like almost a manic determination to lose the game at all costs. On one play he forgot which team he was playing for and threw the ball to the Rams, I am convinced, momentarily believing he was playing for his former team. At the end of the game I told my Dad, "Warner needs to take two snaps from center to win the game but I don't think he can do it." Sure enough he muffed a snap. I believe if we had another possession that day Warner would have fainted on the field, or ran 50 yards in the wrong direction for a safety.
Again. Warner had a brave and amazing season last year and I grew to respect him as a person and a football player, though he still turned the ball over habitually and hampered the offense with bad decisions. Warner is not an every game, every down QB for the Cardinals, only Leinart is.
Everyone expects Leinart to boom or bust this season, my own expectation is that he will just need to make simple plays and will look better and better if the team improves around him. The Cardinals have enough talent on offense to make any competent QB look very, very good. Leinart will not be the MVP of the NFL, but I think he can help win a lot of games this year with quiet stats. You know, the kind of games where Jake Plummer showed good leadership when the team won, but didn't get the job done when we lost. Equal efforts by the QB, difference in team play around him. Also, having Leinart in the game doing OK is better than Warner in the game doing OK because as soon as Warner gets hurt, you upset the continuity & rhythm for the receivers and backs, and Warner can't get hurt on the sidelines so you keep him around as a useful backup and not a casualty.
By the way, creepy looking or not Kent Graham was a very underrated Cardinal. He was clutch! Give him an impossible 4th down and he was golden. Racked up some big offensive numbers with Boomer Esiason for a much improved Cardinal team in Vince Tobin's first year. Jim Fassel was a great OC that year, before going to the Giants and finally being tossed out of the league for winning too often.
