Posts tagged KurtWarner at FanHouse

We're halfway through the preseason and head coach Ken Whisenhunt has pretty much kept to the story he was pushing this spring: Matt Leinart's the starter but Kurt Warner would get a legit shot at the job.

In yesterday's Arizona Republic, Bob Young writes that Whisenhunt seems intent on keeping his word; after not taking a snap in the Cards' first preseason game, Warner started against the Chiefs finished 6 of 9 for 54 yards.

Leinart also fared well, going 7 of 11 with a touchdown (and one fumble), so unlike, say, the Ravens, Whisenhunt has a good quarterback problem. (John Harbaugh, on the other hand, is probably wondering how soon until he can name Joe Flacco the starter, and just face the consequences that come with putting a rookie under center.)

Young then goes through the trouble of making the case for both players, but I think his first point in support of Warner pretty much says it all: "Warner threw for 21 touchdowns in the final eight games last season. That's getting it done."

Worst case, Whisenhunt could go with a Steve Spurrier-inspired hybrid, but I'm not convinced Leinart has done enough (anything?) to win the job outright. By the way, if Whis was truly trying to make Arizona "Pittsburgh South," Brian St. Pierre would get his chance at the gig.

On Thursday, the Cardinals faced the Saints in their first preseason game of 2008 and the outcome left a little something to be desired (the eight penalties didn't help, I'm guessing). Arizona would lose 24-10, but they did it without Kurt Warner, the sorta, kinda second-string quarterback who could conceivably win the starting gig.

Head coach Ken Whisenhunt held Warner out against New Orleans to keep him from having to play behind the Cards' second-team offensive line. That was the story, anyway. Pro Football Weekly wonders if it had something to do with money.

...Contract negotiations with Cardinals QB Kurt Warner have hit a bit of a snag, with both sides having a problem agreeing on Warner's worth - an understandable dilemma for a player who is considered a backup on the depth chart but excelled as a starter after Matt Leinart was lost for the 2007 season. In the meantime, daily camp observers tell us Warner has appeared to be more of a fan favorite in the early going than Leinart.

Shocking that this could all be about the money. Not sure what Warner's looking for, or what the Cards are willing to fork over, but he seems like a pretty important insurance policy against Matt Leinart. Or, as Warner's hoping still happens, a chance to win the job outright.

Whatever, this will probably resolved in short order, unless, of course, Whisenhunt has supreme confidence that Brian St. Pierre is ready to assume backup job.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Matt Leinart enters his third year and he finally seems to understand that football is actually more important than bonging beers with Nick Lachey. If he struggles early, though, head coach Ken Whisenhunt won't hesitate to go with 37-year-old Kurt Warner. Heat Index: 5

Running backs: Edgerrin James' best days are (way) behind him, and Marcel Shipp, J.J. Arrington and rookie Tim Hightower are all "just guys." Which is to say: defenses will continue to play the pass until the running game proves otherwise. Heat Index: 3

Receivers: Larry Fitzgerald is extremely happy; Anquan Boldin, not so much. Still, they are two of the best wideouts in the league. No one will miss Bryant Johnson, and rookie Early Doucet will get every chance to win the slot receiver job. Assuming Leinart doesn't regress in '08, both Fitzgerald and Boldin should have 1,000-yard receiving seasons. Heat Index: 8

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, Fantasy FanHouse is here to preview each and every team. Listen closely, you're almost guaranteed to win your FREE fantasy football league, only over at Fleaflicker.

Meet The ...
2005 sleeper. And 2006 sleeper. And 2007 "sleeper." You think everyone's given up on that bandwagon yet? Instead, 'Zona's got a QB controversy -- on the field, not in the hot tub -- an old running back, and a prolific receiving duo. Let's see what we got ...

The Breakout
Matt Leinart recently turned 25 and has only started 16 games in his NFL career. It's a bit early to be dismissing such a talented, young, and smart (on the field, at least) QB. Cards Coach Ken Whisenhunt is still going to give him every opportunity to be the starter, and that's a spectacularly talented receiving corps. You can even use the fact that Kurt Warner put up sparkling numbers last year to help Leinart's cause. He's not old -- Warner, at 37, is. Warner also turned the ball over more than anyone else in the NFL not named Eli or Kitna. I love Leinart for over 3000 yards and 25 TDs. Yes, I really do. Who's with me?

Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart has been criticized in the press and by his own coach this off-season, mostly because of the widely circulated pictures of him partying.

Some have said the pictures showed nothing more than a guy having a good time in the privacy of his own home, but Leinart told the Orange County Register that he now thinks his free-time activities were "mistakes," and he adds that, "I have to realize I'm a role model and act like one."

Leinart sounds like he wants to change his public image, and if that's the case, his teammate Kurt Warner would be a good guy to emulate. Warner has been in the public eye for close to a decade now, and I can't think of a single time that he's done anything off the field that would be categorized as a "mistake." Leinart has said he's learned a lot from Warner about playing quarterback; it would be good for Leinart to learn from Warner about being a celebrity.

The 49ers went out and got Frank Gore some help this offseason in the form of DeShaun Foster. But new offensive coordinator Mike Martz will still have extremely high expectations of the only proven skill player on the roster. I know this because Marshall Faulk told me as much.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Sacramento Bee's Matthew Barrows, Faulk explained his role in the Martzian scheme and what Gore can expect:

It was all on me. The onus was on me to control a lot of things within our offense. Frank is going to be in that same way. He's the core. It's all going to be built around him.

In a sense, it asks a lot of you, and you've got to ask more of yourself, because you've got to be out there on the field. I can remember a time when Mike would call timeouts and say, 'Catch your breath. We've got to get you back in the game.'

Faulk also talked about the importance of pass-blocking in this offense (Kurt Warner would humbly disagree), and admitted that he didn't know how Gore would fare because he hadn't "seen him in that aspect like he's going to be in this system."

This is great news for Alex Smith/Shaun Hill; it's enough to have to learn an entirely new system, particularly one as complex as Martz's. Having Gore share some of the burden should only make the transition easier. Of course, the entire unit can expect to go through some growing pains, but as long as there's improvement, it'll be an upgrade over what the 49ers were calling "offense" last year.

Yesterday, Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt reiterated that the quarterback job is Matt Leinart's to lose. At least until the team gets to training camp and the third-year QB/hot tub aficionado/Nick Lachey's BFF starts short-hopping passes like he's Steve Sax and it's 1983.

Plan B is Kurt Warner, who fared well last season, and has a 50/50 chance of winning the gig at some point in 2008. And perhaps as consequence of his role, Warner is looking for a contract extension.

Warner, who would like a two-year contract, said, "I want to be in a situation where I'm comfortable. I kind of want to know my future. A lot of it will be dictated by what kind of plans they have for me here. I think the contract is going to allow me to see what they're thinking for me moving forward."

It'll also allow Leinart to see what the Cards are thinking for Warner moving forward. Warner's entering the final year of his current deal and although he'll be 37 in three weeks, he's looked very good (and occasionally great) in Arizona's offense, something neither Leinart (or Josh McCown before him) can say.

Reactions varied on the Matt Leinart hot tub pics, somewhere between shock and awe mostly, but head coach Ken Whisenhunt was predictably disappointed. At least publicly.

Leinart, the Cards' former first-round pick, is looking to rebound from inconsistent efforts his first two years in the league, including last season, when he split time with Kurt Warner before landing on injured reserve with a bum shoulder.

Despite Leinart's predilection for hot tubs and ... other stuff, he's still Arizona's starter heading into 2008. Sort of:

"It's the same thing it was when I said back at the end of the season," Whisenhunt said after volunteer workouts Monday in Tempe. "Matt's our starter, Kurt's going to be there pushing. It's going to be a tough job for Matt to keep because Kurt played at a high level for us last year, he's been doing a lot of work in the off-season and he's looked sharp in these drills.

"It's competition. And it's not just at quarterback, it's every position on our team and that's the way you like to have it."

The concern, it seems, was that Whisenhunt may have been leaning towards Warner because the former Rams Super Bowl quarterback took most of the first-team snaps during a practice last week.

Whatever, letting the two quarterbacks compete for the job seems like a swell idea. Of course, Cards coaches had probably hoped Leinart would be further along at this point, but on the upside, having a competent backup means the team doesn't have to force Leinart onto the field before he's ready. So there's that.

At FanHouse, one man's trash is another man's treasure. But only the few raise to the level of Notable Moments in FanHouse Commenting.

Ex-Patriots employee Matt Walsh has finally agreed to spill everything he knows to the NFL about Spygate, and eventually we will know the scoop. In the months since Walsh's name first emerged, there's been tons of speculation about what he knows. Is Walsh going to drop the hammer on the Patriots or is this just ridiculously overblown?

And though all thoughtful comments at FanHouse are appreciated, I feel that this comment from Bob deserves special recognition. It is his theory about the delay in working out an agreement with Walsh:

Here's the hold up. Walsh has several tapes that Goodell wants to see. The first shows the Rams Super Bowl walkthrough, including the play where Kurt Warner fumbles in the end zone. Interestingly, the tape also shows Willie Gary wearing Ty Law's jersey when they practice the play where Law intercepts Warner and takes it in for a touchdown. Another tape shows Bill Belichick in Dallas on November 23, 1963. He's just a kid, but the tape clearly shows him holding a high powered rifle running from the grassy knoll. The third tape proves that Tom Brady and Gisele are both aliens sent here to bred and take over the world. The fourth tape is the biggest problem. It shows that Elvis is alive and well and works at a Stuckies off of I-40 in Tennessee. Goodell isn't sure he wants to see this tape, but I think he should. Who knows what they put into all of those peanut logs?

I know that I've got about as much credibility in medicine as Dr. Nick, so maybe I should just acquiesce to the doctors who have cleared Trent Green to play football again, but it seems pretty obvious to me that he ... um ... shouldn't. Two brutal concussions have already left him Eric Lindros-ed, how long will it take before he gets Evander Holyfield-ed?

Yet Green has made two free agent visits -- New Orleans and St. Louis -- and he's all about returning to the Rams.

"I'm trying to be as impartial as I can," Green said. .. ."So I'm trying to take the emotion out of it, although it is very difficult. Because I do think fondly of the city and the fans here. And I have great memories of the organization. All those things weigh into it."

More than winning, I would think "best chance to keep remaining brain matter" would be high on the priority list for Green. In that sense, I don't think St. Louis is the best place to land, if Green is really deadset on being on a 2008 roster.

St. Louis is his hometown, where he was starter before Rodney Harrison (who else?) cheap-shotted Kurt Warner to stardom, and the new home of his former offensive coordinator Al Saunders; it's also got a terrible offensive line and a quarterback who himself is damaged. If last year is any indication, Green will have to step onto the field for the Rams at some point, and who knows what kind of damage a relatively minor sack could produce? New Orleans is a much more stable situation, but I still think it's in Green's best interest to retire.