Matt Leinart On the Block in Arizona, Not Afraid to Speak His Mind

Added on Sep 01, 2010 by Eric Galko in

NFL

Matt Leinart has gone from heir to one of the NFL’s best offenses to fighting for his starting job, to a backup, to maybe being off the team in the next few days.

Leinart, former 10th overall pick from USC five years ago, has yet to seize the starting quarterback over his career, and even though he’s adamant that he should be the guy, he’s on the verge of losing his job outright to newly signed Derek Anderson from the Browns this year.

Adam Schefter has reported that the Cardinals have had discussions about trading Leinart to a few teams: the Buffalo Bills, the Oakland Raiders, and the New York Giants. This is a far fall from grace from being one of the most decorated college football players and Heisman trophy winner this decade.

Not only is Leinart on the block to be traded or even cut if there are no offers, but he’s be defiant in this whole situation. He has said multiple times that he doesn’t understand why it’s even a battle at quarterback, and he thinks it’s “beyond football” for the reason that he’s not the guaranteed starter.

He’s also now come out and said that he won’t be a backup quarterback for any team. While that may change if he’s traded and won’t have a chance to beat out the starter, he seems pretty intense about this whole situation. Maybe his calling should be to the rising UFL league, where he will almost be guarenteed to start.

Leinart needs to understand that his lack of arm strength and overall willingness to take chances has turned him into a run of the mill backup quarterback in the NFL. He’s not the 1st first-round quarterback to bust, and he won’t be the last. But he is good enough to be an NFL quarterback contributor, and the quicker he understands the he needs to stay in the business to play the game he loves, the quicker he’ll be out of the headlines and getting on with his life.