Houston Texans Favorites To Sign Matt Leinart

Added on Sep 05, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

UPDATE: Leinart signed a one year deal with the Texans on Monday.

Matt Leinart was released by the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, but it looks like he won’t be out of work for long. Word on the streets is that the Houston Texans are interested in signing the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner. Houston needs a #3 quarterback to back up starter Matt Schaub and #2 Dan Orlovsky. Orlovsky is no treasure, so he could quickly jump to the backup role.

There was some speculation that he’d end up in Seattle with former USC coach Pete Carroll. The Seahawks didn’t have much interest, however, likely due to the fact that they’re in decent shape at quarterback. Matt Hasselbeck is the starter (at least for this year–he’s in the final year of his contract and the Seahawks are unlikely to re-sign him) and he’s backed up by former Clemson standout Charlie Whitehurst. Whitehurst is brutally talented and with a few breaks could be a superstar in the NFL. The #3 QB is J.P. Losman and while he’s not a ‘game changer’ is a competent veteran and well suited for this role.

In addition, there was some chatter that the Cincinnati Bengals were interested in Leinart but that proved to be incorrect. For now, Cincy will stick with Jordan Palmer at #2 and J.T. O’Sullivan at #3 behind starter Carson Palmer.

Houston does look like a good fit–the Texans haven’t re-signed Josh David Booty and despite an ‘incomplete’ grade on his NFL career Leinart sure seems like an upgrade there. As noted above, Orlovsky is far from the best backup in the league and could find himself demoted to the #3 slot. Some NFL observers have pointed out that Leinart really isn’t coach Gary Kubiak’s ‘type’ of quarterback–Kubiak likes a more mobile QB and that’s sure not one of Leinart’s strong suit.

Obviously Leinart would rather be playing football for a paycheck than not, though its doubtful that money is a huge issue for a guy that signed a $51 million deal out of college. At the press conference announcing his release, Cards’ coach Ken Whisenhunt suggested that Leinart wouldn’t be happy in a backup role–and, in fact, used that as much of the justification for his release. For now, if Leinart ever does want to be a starting QB in the NFL he needs to stay in the game. Financially, he could almost certainly afford to take a year off but from a career standpoint it would be unwise.

On a more humorous note, someone posted this video to YouTube of Leinart flailing at arcade football and suggesting that’s why the Cards cut him loose.